Scarlet Scarves
by Priss88
Summary: What if Krum had fallen for another girl in the library? Not a MarySue.
1. Chapter 1

_Scarlet Scarves_

Chapter 1—On the Road with Roger and Lana

The dog was a solid halfway down the lane before I realized what was happening, and by then it was too late anyway. I'd fallen backward when he'd wriggled his neck out of the makeshift collar Id been holding but I picked myself up slowly, dusting the dirt off myself. I knew better than to think I could catch him.

From down by the house Roger's voice sounded. He must have heard the yelp I'd let out and the barked reply. "Goddamn it Tennessee." He shouted. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

I blushed scarlet. Roger was a year older than me, the captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, and very cute. (Off limits of course because he was Lana's jerk older brother but sometimes when I stayed over at Lana's he came down to breakfast in just the long pants he wore to sleep and I couldn't help but notice he had very nice arms.) "He just got away from me." I called back.

"Well go get him for fuck's sake! We're running late as it is."

I swore to myself under my breath as I jogged down the lane. I hadn't wanted to watch the dog and the luggage—I hadn't even really wanted to go to the stupid Quidditch World Cup— and yet here I was, hunting the goddamn countryside for the mangy thing.

My best friend Lana Davies and I had found the dog three days ago in the creek bed behind her house and she had absolutely insisted we bring it home. The pup was only about a year old or so but completely untrained and not very pretty either. (He had a short, ugly tail stuck to his short, ugly body like a lump of brown play-doh and one of his ears drooped inexplicably). She hadn't thought up a name for him yet so he was simply known as 'the dog.'

I must have run for about ten minutes before I found the awful thing. It was sitting in the middle of the road scratching one of its numerous fleas and seeming to grin up at me as if this were a game of tag. He started to trot off again when he saw me but thinking quickly I unslung my knapsack and dug out my sandwich. It was only corned beef but it smelled strongly and the dog couldn't ignore it.

He trotted compliantly over just as if he were the most well-behaved show dog and let me refasten the collar to him, this time on a tighter setting. He panted corned beef breath in my face happily. I unhooked one of the straps on my knapsack and fasted it to the collar as a lead of sorts but to my infinite relief he seemed happy just to jog next to me the whole way back.

Roger and Lana were waiting for me at the pile of backpacks and sundry luggage. Roger bent down and clipped the real collar onto the dog. "What's this?" He asked me when he stood again, my knapsack strap in hand. He looked like he thought I was the biggest idiot on the face of the planet.

"Er…the strap from my bag." I explained lamely.

He handed it back to me quickly, like it was dirty or something. Lana was busy playing with her newly returned friend, letting him jump up and slobber on her jeans. "Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy?" She cooed at him.

_Not you that's for damn sure_, I thought at the dog sullenly.

"Well are we going or what Lana?" Roger asked grumpily. "The portkey won't wait and we were already running late before your stupid friend let go of the damn dog."

Lana looked up from coddling her new pet. "Shut the hell up Roger!" She said, punching him in the arm. "We'll make it on time."

The hike through the woods was fun, almost. Lana and I chatted as we walked about thirty yards behind Roger. Roger was a dick under normal circumstances but he was extra grumpy about being put in charge of looking after us at the Cup. It was a good deal for Lana and I, who would have had to go with a parent otherwise, but Roger could have gone with just his friends if we hadn't come. Still, the morning was the perfect end-of-summer temperature and Roger lightened up when we met a few of his friends from school on the road.

Getting to be outdoors was what I liked most about spending time at Lana's house. I'd lived my whole life in cities and hadn't even really known what to expect of the countryside when she'd invited me after first year, much less what it would be like living with a magical family. I'd learned quickly from Lana how to live outdoors—climb trees, jump over fences, catch fireflies and toads. And her family had made domestic magic seem comfortable and regular.

As we turned off the road into the forest, Jack, one of the older boys, dropped back to walk with Lana and I. "Who are you two going for?" He asked us.

"Bulgaria." Lana said instantly. Lana didn't really have an opinion on the Bulgarian team per say but Roger was a staunch Irish supporter and she knew as well as I did she was strongly pro inter-sibling strife.

"How about you?" He asked.

I shrugged. "I dunno." I said honestly. "Which one is the underdog?"

"Bulgaria." He said.

"I guess them then." This rule, of picking the underdogs I mean, was the same one I used about football games my dad took me too as well.

Jack laughed a little bit at that and said that I was funny. I'm not sure if he meant I was humorous (I wasn't trying to be) or that I was odd. "Who are you going for?" Lana asked him.

He spread his arms and grinned, "Ireland alas." He said.

We walked for a few minutes, listening to Jack enumerating the strengths and weaknesses of the key players of each team. Lana already knew most of this (she had two other brothers besides Roger) but I listened carefully. I didn't want to be the most ignorant person at the Cup.

"And then there's Krum…" Jack said, his voice dipping in reverence.

Lana cut in, "oh don't start! If anyone else mentions this Krum kid I'm going to hex myself into pieces. Basically Tennessee he's the best thing since sliced bread and that's all you need to know."

Jack laughed. "That was what I was going to say with just a few more words." He admitted.

Jack talked with us for a few more minutes and then sped up to catch his friends. "He's nice." I said when he'd left.

Lana shrugged. "Never met him before."

"What he isn't one of Roger's friends?"

"Seems far to nice to be to me." Lana said.

We reached the portkey with about fifteen minutes to spare. There were two girls from Hogwarts there from our year already waiting. They separated themselves quickly from the tired, motherly looking witch they were standing with when they saw the crowd of boys emerge from the wood.

"Tennessee Scarlet!" One of the, Allison Smilie who I knew from fifth year Charms called to me. "How the…" she seemed to cut this short as she realized her mother was standing ten feet from her. "…how are you?"

"Not bad. And you?" I asked.

"Excited as hell. You?"

They said nothing else interesting—the conversation was mostly comprised of them jealously bemoaned the fact that we were parentless for the whole weekend. I was just glad that they didn't want to talk about the actual Cup, because both of them already had large shamrocks fastened to their cloaks and one had a thick Irish accent.

"Come on you two!" Jack yelled to us. "The portkey is going to leave in a minute."

I'd never used a portkey but I'd made Lana describe the process the night before so I wouldn't look like an idiot when the time came. We all crowded around the dirty old tire and waited. Lana's elbow was in my ribs and I could smell someone's armpit.

"Roger get your…" Lana started to say but then…it was an interesting feeling. I'd been water-skiing once before and it was a similar kind of pressure except from just behind my navel instead of on my arms. The rushing feeling was similar too, except instead of lakeside property, swirling colors were howling by. The only difference was that I couldn't seem to leg go of the tire, which hadn't been a problem on my failed water-skiing adventures.

My legs went out from under me. Jack made a grab for me with his free hand but he wasn't fast enough. When we hit what seemed like half an hour later we hit suddenly and with dramatic force. "Nine thirty from Glenwood Groove," someone said.

I sat up quickly and was pleased to note that almost everyone else was on the ground too. In addition to the people who had been at Glenwood Groove were two wizards, one with a watch and the other with a roll of parchment. The one with the watch was wearing coveralls and ruffled shirt that looked like it was from a pirate movie. The other had on a very tight, very trendy pair of acid-washed jeans made for women and a rain slicker.

The one with the watch found our names on a roll and directed us about a quarter mile down the road to the campsite we'd reserved. We said goodbye to the group of boys and the two girls from our year.

Mr. and Mrs. Davies had given me the muggle money and reservations so it was me who dealt with the muggle at the gate. He seemed somewhat dazed at this point though, undoubtedly from near constant memory wipes, as he handed me my change and a map of the campsite.

The tents around our space seemed to be a mix but there were tents you could tell were strongly for one side or the other. The Irish tents, for example looked as if they'd sprung right out the grass they were such a vivid green color. It was, I joked to Lana, like chunks of the Emerald City had set down in the field, but she'd never heard of_ The Wizard of OZ_ so she didn't get it. But if the Irish tents were comparable to Emeralds, the Bulgarian ones were certainly rubies. They were explosion of scarlet with the huge national flags protruding like tumors from the side.

Because none of us were old enough to perform magic over the summer (not, I'm sure because Lana or Roger would have obeyed the rules about muggle security if they'd had a choice) we set the tents up by hand. Actually, I set the tents up while Roger wandered off to find his best friend Williams, who would be camping with us but was coming in on the ten thirty from Goathead Style, and Lana got in my way trying to help.

The tent was smaller than I imagined it would be when I got it up. "Going to be a bit cramped in there isn't it?" I asked. I was imagining a post-game high Roger and I snuggling up together in the cramped tent.

"Not with just the four of us." Lana said as we crawled through the flap. I stood up in a very cheery looking cabin-looking room complete with a sink, indoor toilet, oven and four neat bunks. "Yeah, see there are four beds."

"Right." I said. I wasn't sure that Lana would understand if I told her that not all tents were like this. Besides, I more wanted to see what was in the refrigerator.

8888

By the time we made it to the Stadium even Roger was in a good mood. The Ministry wizards who had been running back and forth all afternoon trying to stem the ever increasing flow of blatant magic seemed to have given up at this point. With little 'pops' carts were appearing everywhere, loaded down with merchandise. Some salesmen sold for just one team or another but most were a mixed bag.

Roger bought a model of one of the Irish seekers and a huge green shamrock pin that squeaked the names of the players. I thought I saw him take a longing glance at a full sized poster of the Bulgarian seeker but he seemed to know better than to try to buy it in front of Lana.

As for Lana herself she had already bought a Bulgarian flag and had a scarlet scarf with a roaring lion slung around her neck. When she waved her flag (which she rarely stopped) it sung the national anthem, only it did so in Bulgarian so I can't be sure what it said.

Williams bought three shamrocks and a dancing hat. He supported Ireland during the regular season and was more excited about this game than any of the rest of us. Consequently, he was much more obnoxious than usual.

Williams was the kind of teenage boy whose faults could be forgiven if only he had any charms to balance them. The dismissive way he treated everybody, the way he just said whatever popped to his head, would have been okay if he'd been handsome like Roger or funny like Jack or famous like Krum or even if he just stopped expecting everyone to be nice to him back. But he had this imperious way of just doing what he wanted.

It was, coincidentally, exactly the kind of arrogance that really, really pissed Lana off. She used to call him Kaiser Wilhelm until in third year he called me a flat-chested bookworm, who could only get a guy if I was willing to put out, to my face. Since then she prefers to call him only by obscenities.

I bought a Bulgarian scarf and the poster of Krum that Roger had been looking at. "He's cute." Lana said as the vendor rolled it up for me.

I rolled my eyes. "If you say so." I said.

Krum wasn't exactly ugly but cute was a stretch even for Lana's imagination. He had a nice, balanced face and a powerful build but he was so surly looking with his intense scowl and eyes. But Lana didn't see that. What Lana saw when she looked at Krum was a world class Quidditch player: the kind of famous that made her brother looking longingly at this poster even as he was picking up merchandise in support of the other team. She saw the respect and fame Krum had, not Krum himself.

Still, on the other hand, who was I to criticize? I had a crush on her brother, who treated me like dirt, and for no other reason except that he looked good with his shirt off. Thinking that about my best friend felt a little awkward but as we mounted the steps I forgot all about it in the buzz of the crowd. The tension and anticipation had been mounting all afternoon and it was a fever pitch by then.

We had mediocre seats, nothing spectacular but not half bad either.

"I hope they get started soon." Lana said after about five minutes of fidgeting in her seat. "I'm ready to see Krum kick some Irish ass."

"Ireland's the favorite." William broke in. "Krum is a prodigy player to be sure but he can't pull his whole team by himself."

"Want to bet on that fuck-head?" Lana asked, whipping around to face him.

"Absolutely." William said. "Ten galleons on Ireland."

"Make it twenty."

"How about you Tennessee?" William asked.

I shrugged. I didn't know enough about the two teams to make any educated guesses but I also didn't want to abandon Lana. "Uhhh…I'd go ten that Krum catches the Snitch." I offered.

"Okay." William agreed.

"Ladies and Gentlemen…welcome! Welcome to the final of the four hundred and twenty-second Quidditch World Cup!" A voice boomed over the now screaming crowd. "And now, without further ado, allow me to introduce…the Bulgarian National Team Mascots."

Lana clapped hard, waving her Bulgarian flag and stamping her feet. "Team Mascots?" I said aloud in wonder, peering down into the field where it seemed like a hundred women dressed in flowing white dresses were pouring out onto the turf. They were strangely beautiful, like they were from another planet almost or paintings of real people animated.

And then they began to dance and Roger and Williams began to act very strangely. Roger was staring down into the stands with an, odd hungry look that made a hot little spear of jealousy shoot through me. Williams was drooling a little bit.

Lana rolled her eyes. "Veela." She explained to me. "When they dance men can hear something we can't. I'm not sure what the hell the fuss is about though. They're down right weird looking if you ask me."

I looked down in interest now. I'd never heard of a spell that was danced before and I wanted to study it closer. But the veela were exiting the field (to loud protests from the men in the audience). "And now," roared the announcer, "kindly put your wands in the air…for the Irish National Team Mascots!"

I missed the first part of the Irish Mascots; I was still peering over to where the veela were, puzzling about dancing magic. In fact I only realized what was happening when a galleon struck me square on the head. I looked up and found that thousands of tiny men in green suits were flying over me in the shape of a shamrock. "Leprechauns!" I whispered aloud.

After almost six years of living in the magical world it could still surprise me. But soon the shamrock broke apart to float down to the opposite side of the field as the veela. "And now ladies and gentlemen, kindly welcome—the Bulgarian National Quidditch Team! I give you—Dimitrov!"

They whizzed out of the gate as their names were call at absolutely unsafe speeds, eliciting a huge uproar from the scarlet clad supporters. "Ivanova! Zograf! Levski! Vulchanov! Volkov! Aaaaaaand—Krum!"

On his broom Krum looked almost graceful. He handled it lazily as he made the lap around the stadium with his team, twitching it one way or another like it was smooth muscle reflex to fly.

"And now, please greet—the Irish National Quidditch Team! Presenting—Connolly! Ryan! Troy! Mullet! Moran! Quigley Aaaaand—Lynch!" Roger and Williams were cheering so loudly for their team I didn't hear the rest of the announcement.

On the field the box with the Bludgers and (presumably the Snitch though I didn't see it) was opened. "Theeeey're OFF!" The announcer shouted.

I had, of course, seen Quidditch before, everybody went to the house games, but it hardly seemed to be the same sport. The Irish Chasers were moving so quickly I could hardly follow the ball, much less what was happening.

I could make out the generalities—the Irish Chasers were clearly superior but the Bulgarian Beaters were very good too. "I hope you've got the twenty galleons you're about to owe me Lana." William said when the score was three and zero to Ireland.

But right as he said it a roar went up. The two Seekers were racing hard and fast toward the ground. I squinted hard for the Snitch but couldn't make it out. Lana grabbed my arm and dug her nails in painfully until I yelped. I took my eyes off the game for a second to see if I could dissuade her from gripping me so tightly missed what happened.

It wasn't hard to figure out though. When I turned back Krum was floating up and Lynch was a pile of green robes in the green grass surrounded by the medical staff. Lana laughed high and wicked. "Now who's laughing shithead!" She said to Williams.

"Feinting!" Roger groaned. "I can't believe he was feinting!"

When Lynch returned to the game he returned to a dirtier one. Cobbing, Stimping, Froddering, Toading—Fouls I'd never even heard of were announced and the veela and leprechauns were getting more and more nasty to each other.

I was watching the veela, who had transformed somehow into long beaked birds and were battling the leprechauns, when Lana grabbed my arm. "Oh my God! Lynch!" She shrieked.

My eyes followed the line of her arm to where Lynch had gone into a dive that looked like no feint to me. And then out of nowhere Krum seemed to be right behind him (and when had Krum's nose been broken? I wondered). Lana was gripping my arm painfully hard again but I didn't turn away as for the second time Lynch hit the ground with a sickening 'thud.'

"What happened?" William yelled, as if any of us could know yet.

But then I saw Krum's fist was thrust skyward. "Krum's got it!" I yelled back. "But who won?"

The scoreboard read Bulgaria: 160, Ireland: 170. "IRELAND WINS!" The announcer shouted but, he, like most of the crowd, seemed not to have yet wrapped his head around what had happened. "KRUM GETS THE SNITCH—BUT IRELAND WINS—good lord, I don't think any of us were expecting that!"

"Why'd he do it?" I asked as we walked back through the dark campsite, stumbling from side to side in giddy drunkenness. "If Ireland was more than one hundred and fifty points ahead why catch the Snitch?"

"Because Bulgaria was never going to catch up." Williams said snottily, jingling the gold in his pockets at Lana. "And he probably didn't want to fly around too much longer with a bloody nose."

Lana just flicked him off. She seemed surprisingly tolerant of William's ceaseless mocking, especially since she'd had to pay him twenty galleons just ten minutes earlier.

The campsite was dark but over to the side we could see a bonfire was getting started and two men were bouncing jets of magical purple fire back and forth. "That's not exactly inconspicuous." I yawned tiredly.

"Let's go check it out." Williams said. "Might be fun."

"Yeah all right. You two go back to the tent." Roger told us.

"Okay." Lana said placidly. "But if you aren't back by morning Tennessee and I aren't coming looking for you. You'll take care of your own hangovers too."

"What's up Lana?" I asked as we pushed through the tent flap.

"What do you mean?" She said.

"You just seem less…angry than I'd imagine you'd be since your team lost." I said. "And you're being really tolerant of Roger and Williams too."

She shrugged. "It was a good game." She said simply. "Besides," she added with an evil smirk, "I feel pretty smug about paying Williams with the leprechaun gold. It'll be gone by the end of the night."

"You didn't." I gaped.

She laughed. "Little fucker deserves worse."

I pulled on my pajamas and crawled into bed, thinking about the stupid things Roger was probably doing with some girl and wishing the tent weren't suddenly so cold.

8888

It seemed to me that I was fully awake even before the bang that woke me had finished. I sat up and cracked my head against Lana's bunk, swore twice and grasped the tender patch until it settled into a dull throb.

Sliding my feet into my sneakers I stumbled quickly out of the tent. The raucous sounds we'd been hearing all night seemed to have changed suddenly and now they were moving toward us. And someone was screaming.

My breath fogged a little in front of me as I rounded the tent corner and froze. A crowd of people were moving into the camping area: not a sinister thing on it's own but there was a queer vibe in the air that I knew meant trouble. And then I saw that high above them were floating four shapes, writhing and contorting grotesquely. One of them was the muggle who had been tending the campground gates.

I dashed back into the tent and shook Lana awake. "We've got to get out of here." I said, my voice shaking slightly. "There's trouble."

"What? What are you talking about Tennessee?" She asked drowsily but she had picked up on the fear in my voice and she was already swinging down off her bunk.

"The crowd." I explained. "They've gone nutters. They've got some muggles and they're doing something awful to them."

"What do you mean?" She asked as she put on her shoes hurriedly.

"I dunno. They're floating them over the crowd somehow." I explained as we hurried out the tent. "See." I pointed. "Think we should go try to help them out?"

Lana shook her head, suddenly ash white. She went to where the dog had been tied to one of the corner stakes and unfastened his lead. He barked a little and whined, tucking his tail between his legs. "If they're doing this to muggles they'd do it to muggle-borns too." She said, looking right at me. "We've got to get into the woods and do it quickly."

That seemed ridiculous to me. I knew of course about You-Know-Who and Death Eaters but they seemed like a long past chapter in history, not a present danger, especially not to me. I feared You-Know-Who about as much as I feared a communist nuclear missile strike.

I opened my mouth to say as much but just then one of the masked wizards blasted down a tent in his path. "Okay." I said. "Let's get to the woods."

Once we had decided to get to the woods it seemed like we couldn't get there fast enough. We started for them at a slow walk the time we made it to the first trees we were both sprinting as hard as we could. "What about your brother?" I asked as we flopped down against a wide tree stump a few hundred meters along the path to catch our breath.

"He and Williams can take care of themselves." She said. "Besides they're both pureborns, they're not in any danger."

"Are you not in any danger either Lana?" I asked.

She shrugged awkwardly.

After we caught our breath we walked a little further. Since we were on the path there was no fear of getting lost and the more distance we put between us and the screaming, we reasoned, the better.

A little way further we found a group of veela and a flock of young men surrounding them. "That's disgusting." Lana said dismissively.

It was about to voice my consent when I noticed one of them was Roger. He and William were pushing each other and flexing and generally acting like total idiots as they yelled outrageous falsehoods.

"Look!" I said, pointing. "It's Roger. Do you think we should do something?"

Lana laughed. "Why? He's already making a total ass of himself, we can hardly improve the situation."

So we sat down at the edge of the weird silver light cast by the veela and watched the stupidity unfold. People wandered by occasionally and formed groups as the clearing was big and far enough away from the commotion to feel safe.

"You weren't in any real danger." Lana said suddenly, as if to convince herself as well as me. "It isn't like the old days when You-Know-Who was around. These people are probably just drunken revelers who've had a few too many beers. They can't do any real damage."

But I couldn't help thinking about the terrified looks on the faces of the muggles floating fifty feet in the air. I shivered a little and wrapped my robe around myself tighter. "It's a shame they don't give off something useful like heat too." Lana said, gesturing to the veela.

I giggled and scooted up closer to her as if sharing body heat would make a significant difference. "At least we won't have to say 'nothing' when anyone asks us what we did this summer." I tried to joke.

Lana let the dog jump up on her lap and curl up there to warm her as she stroked it's ugly head. "Now's about as good a time as any to name this little gentleman. What do you think Tennessee?"

I considered. "The Ugliest Dog in the World?" I suggested.

She shoved my shoulder. "How about Prince Charming?"

"How about something tribal like Dog-Whose-Breath-Is-Bad."

"Or He-Who-Is-Awesome."

"Williams?"

"Cedrick Diggory." She countered, naming the handsomest boy in our school.

I was just considering how to counter that when there was a noise like a firecracker releasing and I turned my head skyward just in time to see a green skull bloom in the night sky. The group of people standing to the left of us shrieked in fear as the mouth of the skull opened and a long, evil snake slid out. "Oh fuck." I heard myself say.

"It's the Dark Mark!"

"You-Know-Who had returned!"

The clearing, which had been buzzing with the tension of being split from friends and family in a crisis, erupted. The veela were finally forgotten as people full out panicked. The dog was yelping, picking the stress up from the crowd, and leaped off of Lana's lap, running for the woods hard enough to knock him off his feet when he hit the end of his leash.

Roger and Williams hurried over to us, both of them white-faced and shaking. "We've been worried about you two." Roger said. "Where we're you?"

"Yeah you looked worried." Lana returned snottily, gesturing to the veela, but even her sarcasm had gone limp under the green skull. "And we've been hanging around here for almost an hour watching you lot make total idiots of yourselves."

We were silent until the Ministry Wizard came to tell the crowd that the 'situation' had been contained, no it was not You-Know-Who who sent the Mark nor any of his followers, just a prank and could we all return to our tents in an orderly fashion thank you very much.

"Prank! The Ministry must think we're all a bunch of idiots." Williams said as we trudged back to the tent.

"Well in your case they'd be right." Said Lana.

"I bet it was a real Death Eater as sent the Mark." Williams continued, ignoring Lana. "But the Ministry just doesn't want to tell us about it."

Maybe it was the long day or the stress but for some reason I just didn't want to listen to Williams stupid, arrogant assumptions any more. "You know who I think sent it?" I said snottily. "The alligators in the New York sewers."

But, of course, no one got the joke.

_Fin_

AN: Well I hope you liked this introductory chapter. Please, please, please review (constructive criticism is most helpful). Here is a taste of the next chapter.

_The man in front reached Dumbledoor and shook his hand genially. They spoke for a minute and then began to move up the stairs. They moved closer and closer until they got into the lee of the building and suddenly I could hear their voices loudly._

_"…into the warmth…you don't mind, Dumbledoor? Viktor has a slight head cold…" The head of Durmstrang was saying._

_"Oh my God!" Lana said as the Durmstrang kids passed us. "It's him Tennessee! He's here! Viktor Krum has come to Hogwarts! I can't believe it!" She had said he was cute at the world cup. She'd grabbed my arm when she'd thought he was in trouble but it was nothing compared to what she was doing now._

_Her fingers felt like they were bruising my bones they were so deep in the flesh of my arm and Lana had a look on her face I'd never seen before._

_She was starstruck._


	2. Chapter 2

_Scarlet Scarves_

Chapter 2— Durmstrang and Beauxbatons

The weather on the ride back to Hogwarts was bitter. Rain lashed the windows and the wind rocked the cars horribly when we went through unsheltered passes. It might have been depressing on another day but since all we had to do that day was sit in the cozy train compartment I felt almost smug that the weather was so bad. Of course everyone was either talking about, or wanted to know about the World Cup. It was surprising to me how people poured over every second of the evening until the time when Krum caught the Snitch and didn't talk almost at all about what happened afterward.

"It's just an isolated incident." Lana said when I mentioned that. "Nothing to worry about I told you."

Of my group of friends only two hadn't gone to the Cup. Anna Chaz had spent the summer at her dad's house in America (her parents were divorced as of a year ago) so she hadn't gone. And Amanda Bowhed, my other best friend, had gotten violently ill two days before and her mother had made her stay home. Fortunately, Amanda didn't care too much about anything but boys though and the only thing she was really disappointed about was that her ticket had eventually gone to the daughter of a friend of her mother's, whom she hated.

Despite this there was only one conversation I remember not being about Quidditch. When the friendly witch with the snack cart pushed by Amanda pulled me aside while the rest crowded out into the hall. "Were you okay…after the match?" She asked me.

I nodded. "Lana and I got to the woods right away." I said. "It was fine."

"Okay good." She said and then we both hurried to get our snacks before the witch moved further down the hall.

I bought two pumpkin pasties but I was properly hungry by the time the train rolled to a stop in the station and we all piled out onto the platform, stretching our legs and pulled cloaks around ourselves.

The food at the feast was even better than I'd remembered. After a whole summer of being to lazy to make anything beyond macaroni and cheese or raman for myself in mom's apartment it was almost overwhelming. In fact I was in such a stupor when Dumbledoor began his traditional speech I didn't hear anything up until he announced that there would be no inter-house Quidditch this year.

Ripples of stunned and horrified silence bounced up and down the table but Dumbledoor plowed on as if nothing were the matter, "This is due to an event that will be starting in October, and continuing throughout the school year, taking up much of the teachers' time and—but I am sure you will all enjoy it immensely. I have great pleasure in announcing that this year at Hogwarts—"

But whatever would be such a distraction to the teachers we'd have to wait to find out for the doors of the Great Hall banged, in an almost comically dramatic way, open and framed in the door was a grizzly figure.

The figure was the oddest-looking man I'd ever seen. At first glance he looked deranged to me but, to my less than relief, this was only because one of his eyes fake—an lolling mockery of sky blue that was far too large for his face. I stifled a nervous giggle in my hand as he made his way down the open lane to the teacher's table.

"May I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts Teacher?" Dumbledoor's voice seemed almost to be swallowed whole in crushing silence. "Professor Moody." He and Hagrid clapped but no one else did.

"As I was saying," he continued, "we are to have the honor of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, an event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform you that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

"You're JOKING!" Said the overloud voice of Fred Weasley, spawning a wave of laughter that traveled the same way the wave of silence had following the announcement about Quidditch.

"I am not joking Mr. Weasley," Dumbledoor, "though now that you mention it, I did hear an excellent one over the summer about a troll, a hag, and a leprechaun who all go into a bar…"

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat.

"Er—but maybe this is not the time…no…where was I?" Dumbledoor started again. "Ah yes, the Triwizard Tournament…well, some of you will not know what this tournament involves so I hope those who do know will forgive me giving a short explanation and allow their attentions to wander freely.

"What the hell!" Amanda hissed to me as Dumbledoor gave a brief background of the Tournament. "Dad works that the blooming ministry and he never mentioned this! Ooh I hope the new boys are cute."

Just to be cruel I said, "they'll have accent's too." Amanda almost moaned in delight.

"The Heads of Beauxbatons and Durmstrang with be arriving with their short-listed contenders in October," Dumbledoor was saying, "and the selection of the three champions will take place at Halloween. An impartial judge will decided which students are most worthy to compete for the Triwizard Cup, the glory of their school, and a thousand Galleons personal prize money."

"That is so hot. There better be at least one cute Champion." Lana said.

"Oh God yes." Amanda agreed.

"Eager though I know all of you will be to bring the Triwizard Cup to Hogwarts," Dumbledoor went on, "the heads of the participating schools, along with the Ministry of Magic, have agreed to impose and age restriction on contenders this year. Only students who are of age—that is to say, seventeen years of older—will be allowed to put forward their names for consideration." Here Dumbledoor had to pause slightly as a low buzz of anger rose. "This is a measure we feel is necessary, given that the tournament tasks will still be difficult and dangerous, whatever precautions we take, and it is highly unlikely that students below sixth and seventh year will be able to cope with them. I will personally be ensuring that no underage student hoodwinks our impartial judge into making them Hogwarts champion. I therefore beg you not to waste your time submitting yourself if you are under seventeen."

I glanced down the table when he said this. Little conversations among friends had sprouted up all along it. The younger classmen seemed angry and were probably talking about ways to fool whatever Dumbledoor had in mind (Fred and George were looking mutinous). The upper classmen were undoubtedly telling each other whether or not they would be volunteering.

I took a quick look at the Ravenclaw table. Roger and Williams were talking too and they looked excited. My heart twisted painfully in my breast. I didn't know how I would feel if Roger was selected as Hogwart's champion. Excited or just terrified?

"October!" Amanda moaned as we headed for the doors. "I can't believe it."

"The wait will just heighten the anticipation, make the actual arrival better." I said encouragingly but she wasn't inclined to cheer up.

8888

First days of school are, without fail, fun. It seemed to me around every corner was some fresh face I'd loved the year before but forgotten over the summer. And then there's the fact that the teachers relax the tardy policy because they're unable to distinguish who genuinely couldn't find the room and who was chatting with old friends in the corridor. The whole mad, by-the-seat-of-your-pants feel is invigorating after the summer daze. But you have to watch out for the second day.

We spend three months nurturing, crafting and developing our slovenly habits and then we're expected to kick them in a day in a half. Teachers pile on homework to show us what they can do if we get on their bad side. We start to remember why we hated bunking with seven other girls last year. And the fun, rushed feeling of the day before turned out to be stress.

"Oh my God Professor Moody is out of his head." Amanda sighed as we sat down for lunch together. "I'm scared to sneeze in his class for fear he'll hex me so bad Madame Pomfrey can't fix it."

"At least you dropped out of Care of Magical Creatures last year." I whined, digging into my sandwich. "Hagrid has these weird, bulbous creatures he calls Skrewts. Skrewts! I ask you!"

"I'd forgotten how boring Professor Binns is."

"Transfiguration is sooooo hard!"

"I swear I didn't think it was possible but Professor Snape got more irritated about the pole up his ass over the summer."

"Ugh if Trewlawny doesn't stop buggering on about who's going to die in the tournament I'm going to chunk her out the window and her stupid crystal ball after her."

But for all the complaining we did, October waxed and waned more swiftly than I had expected. It seemed impossibly soon that we were all reading that announcement of the imminent arrival of Durmstrang and Beauxbatons.

"Oh my fuck!" Amanda hissed in my ear. "What on earth am I going to wear?"

"You've got a whole week." I told her. "You'll find something."

But that week too slid by on double time. And it seemed the next thing I knew I was standing out in the front hall of the school, shivering with my classmates and wondering how, exactly, these foreign guests would be arriving.

I had no idea the tone of the whole year was about to change for me. My mind, I remember, was with the half-finished charms homework I'd left lying on my desk (I'd resolved to leave dinner early to get it done).

"Where are Durmstrang and Beauxbatons anyway?" Lana asked to no one in particular as we waited.

"Well Beauxbatons is obviously French and Durmstrang sounds Germanic to me." I said. "My guess would be Germany of Western Europe but obviously no one except the pupils and alumni really know where it is."

"Ooh I love French accents." Amanda broke in, clapping gloved hands together.

She'd been inconsolable when she found out that, as Halloween fell on a weekday she would have to wear her school robes to the Welcome Feast, but she was cheering up nicely now that she was so close to the prospect of new boys to flirt with.

"Why doesn't anyone know where it is?" Lana asked.

I shrugged. "Because the people who founded them don't want people too I suppose. There's a long history of rivalry between the schools and I guess it has something to do with that."

Amanda scoffed. "What are we going to do? Sneak over to France and paint their quad with our colors? We are opposition Quidditch teams."

I shrugged. "I dunno."

I paused for a second and the conversation died away.

"Is…that is I mean…is your brother entering Lana?" I tried to sound as causal as I could.

She was still scouting around for any sign of the foreign students. "Yeah but if that stupid git gets to be Hogwart's champion I'll eat my hat. Surely the judge knows better than to appoint a smarmy little bastard like him."

"Surely." I echoed.

"Aha! Unless I am very much mistaken, the delegation from Beauxbatons approaches!" Dumbledoor's voice seemed to carry surprisingly well across the chattering crowd.

"Ooh where is it?" Amanda squealed.

"There!" I yelled, my voice coming out much louder than I'd intended as I pointed over the crowd where a large, dark shape was hurtling toward campus at an unbelievable rate.

"It's a dragon!" A girl in the front row shrieked.

"Don't be stupid…it's a flying house!" Another boy replied.

But it was neither. It was, I could see by that time, a large flying carriage pulled by enormous, winged horses. It was the size of a mansion and a light blue with golden etchings on the sides.

From it (when it had finally landed) came a very small boy (or perhaps he only looked small compared to the carriage and the woman who exited next.) The woman was the biggest I'd ever seen, as big as Hagrid. But she was handsome, I thought, once you got past the shock of how big she was. Her was tan with long black hair pulled back in a smart bun and dark, sharp eyes.

She stopped in front of Dumbledoor and they exchanged words that were caught by the wind and blown sideways before I could catch them. But, after a brief conversation, she led her students into the hallway.

"How come they get to go inside?" Lana complained. "I'm freezing."

"They're hardly dressed for the weather." I commented as they walked by. Some of them had scarves and mufflers but they were like, silky decorations that more than likely augmented the problem instead of helping it.

I wondered if they knew how ridiculous they looked in matching periwinkle silk. But even as I thought it I realized that I recognized a face in the crowd. "Jack!" I shouted before I could stop myself.

There he was, looking just as silly and shivering just as hard. He raised a hand to me and waved but his lips were blue and he hurried inside quickly. "I didn't know he went to Beauxbatons!" I whispered to Lana.

"Who the hell is he?" Amanda asked. "And when can you introduce me?"

"We met him on the way to the Cup." Lana said. "But his English is so good I thought he went to Hogwarts. I guess that explains why he wasn't familiar looking through."

"I wonder if they all speak English." I said.

"That could be interesting." Lana giggled.

Amanda didn't like that idea though. "That's not fair." She pouted. "How am I supposed to flirt in a language I don't even speak."

I smiled. "Ah it'll probably just make the relationship last longer if you can't talk to him. Keep the mystery alive longer at any rate."

She had the goodness to giggle at that. "Hmm…he can whisper sweet nothings to me I don't even understand." She decided finally. "That would be so hot."

"_Je t'adore Amanda_." I said in my best French accent. "'Ome run away with me into ze 'Lps. Let us make love twice a day for ze rest of our lives."

She giggled. "Oh yes Tennessee's cheesy French cliché! Take me now!"

"The lake!" Someone yelled. "Look at the lake!"

From my vantage point I could see, coming through the top of what seemed to be whirlpool in the lake's surface was a long, slender pole. "It's a ship." Lana breathed as rigging and a sail appeared above the water. "It's a goddamn ship."

It looked so romantic on the dark, lake water in the mist—like a painting. The lights in the portholes were casting a yellow glow over the dark surface and reflecting weirdly in the midst.

I am very farsighted so I pulled my glasses up so I could see the crew disembark. "Well they're all built like fucking boulders Amanda." I said. "That should please you." But it was a lie. As the made their way up the dark, slick slopes toward us I could see that the bulk was at least partly fake, lent to them by the dense cloaks they all wore.

The man in front reached Dumbledoor and shook his hand genially. They spoke for a minute and then began to move up the stairs. They moved closer and closer until they got into the lee of the building and suddenly I could hear their voices loudly.

"…into the warmth…you don't mind, Dumbledoor? Viktor has a slight head cold…" The head of Durmstrang was saying.

"Oh my God!" Lana said as the Durmstrang kids passed us. "It's him Tennessee! He's here! Viktor Krum has come to Hogwarts! I can't believe it!" She had said he was cute at the world cup. She'd grabbed my arm when she'd thought he was in trouble but it was nothing compared to what she was doing now.

Her fingers felt like they were bruising my bones they were so deep in the flesh of my arm and Lana had a look on her face I'd never seen before.

She was starstruck.

Lana had never had a crush on someone she didn't know before. She wasn't the kind of girl who hung posters of actors over their beds to moon over but it wasn't because she didn't want that kind of man. It had always been there in her—down beneath the sarcasm and cynicism like a latent disease ready to erupt—all it had taken was proximity.

The actors just weren't real enough for her. Some girls could imagine people well enough to love them without ever seeing them. But Lana didn't have enough imagination in that way. But now Viktor Krum was immediate—close enough to touch and talk to. She could see him breathe and see that his nose, was as his Headmaster had said, inflamed with a head cold.

"Oh I don't believe it, I haven't got a single quill on me—" Lana said in a high, unfamiliar voice. She still had that glazed, lovelorn look in her eyes.

"D'you think he'd sign my hat in lipstick?" Amanda sighed. "He's so cute. You guys didn't tell me _he_ was at the World Cup. I'd have been there in a flash—hundred degree fever in tow."

A passing fourth year girl gave us a disgusted look. "Honestly." She said huffily.

_Oh great_, I thought, _even the fourth years have more decorum than we do._

"You guys…" I said pleadingly. I'm not sure what I was pleading with them for: not degrade themselves so publicly or just not to do it so close to me and at such a decibel. But it didn't matter anyway because they weren't listening to me.

8888

When I sat up in my bed the next morning I was greeted by a very odd sight: all the girls in my dormitory were running back and forth doing two very strange things. The first strange thing was that they weren't asleep. I'd always thought that my dormitory rising early of its own volition was one of the signs of the apocalypse but a quick check out the window showed the day to be bright and beautiful. The second strange thing was harder to point out exactly but it was palpable in the air. It was like the Pre-Stages-of-Beauty Fairy had come in the night spreading frantic primping over every bed but my own.

I realized of course what they were doing this for (or who rather). I groaned and fell back into bed, wishing I could wake up from this nightmare. I didn't want us to be 'those girls.' I didn't want my friends to be the clichéd, hormonal teenage girls who make total asses of themselves over some famous jerk who's just going to repay them by drive a big fat wedge between all of them by sleeping with a few of the prettier ones. But what I could do about it I had no idea.

Amanda came to bounce on my bed next to me. "Want to borrow my lip liner?" She asked, her head floating weirdly above me in my field of vision.

I checked my watch. "Amanda," I said seriously, "it is exactly seven forty five in the morning. Why in the name of anything would I want something like lip liner?"

"We're all going downstairs to watch Viktor but his name in the Goblet of course." Amanda said. "Oh my God I can barely control myself I'm so fucking excited!"

"You've got to be kidding." I said disbelievingly. I'd known this was about Krum in some way but I'd hoped it was something more substantial than this. I'd hoped they were going to some party with him (a party that happened to be happening at eight o'clock in the morning) or something.

But she wasn't of course. The whole sixth year had lost their collective head over night and now we were like a deranged turkey out of control. "What happened to that poster you bought at the World Cup?" Lana asked. She didn't join Amanda on my bed though. She didn't seem to want to rumple her outfit.

It took me a few seconds to realize which poster she meant. I'd intended to leave it somewhere where Roger could have it but had forgotten in the excitement of getting back to go back to Hogwarts. It was still crammed in the bottom of the backpack I'd taken to the Cup with me.

"Bottom of that bag I took." I admitted. "Why?"

"Well I was thinking we could put it up." She said hopefully.

I shifted my eyes back and forth. "Umm knock yourself out." I offered, sliding out from the covers to use the restroom.

"How are you lot even going to know when he's going to put his name in the Goblet?" I asked when I returned. Amanda smirked and led me to the window seat where Anna was looking out over the grounds. " I don't get it." I said.

Anna pointed to the ship. "We can see when the Durmstrang delegation leaves from here." She said, smiling.

"That was my idea." Amanda said proudly.

It was brilliant too, to enter leave just when the Durmstrang kids did gave them two advantages. The first was that it gave them more time to prepare and the second was that it made them look more casual, almost as if they'd just wandered in and happened to see him. How the scarf around Lana's waist fit into that part I couldn't quite work out.

"Artful." I told her, impressed.

"I try." She said.

I dressed sloppier than usual that morning. Something about me didn't like how my friends were acting around Viktor and I wanted to do all that I could to make sure he knew that not _all_ the girls at Hogwarts thought he was all that. I wore a pair of ratty muggle blue jeans and an overlarge shirt.

"You can't be serious." Amanda said when she saw me.

"What?" I played dumb.

"If you're going to wear your muggle clothes at least wear something cute." She said.

I scowled. "I'll wear whatever I like."

She cocked her head to the side and studied me for a second. Amanda has hidden depth, I'm sure of it, but you can rarely find it unless you know where to look. But today I could see glimmering behind her expression a little flicker of understanding. She knew exactly what I was trying to do but she couldn't decide if she liked it. Finally she smiled. "Okay." She agreed.

"Oh my God they're leaving the ship!" Lana (who had rotated into window duty) shouted.

Chaos ensued.

Half of the girls were trying to get out to make sure they're didn't miss the show but the other half were trying to return to their vanities for a last minute adjustment. By the time I got out into the common room I felt like my arms would never recover from being knocked so many times.

"Come on!" Lana squealed. "Let's go."

Excitement is one of the most catching social diseases and even I felt a little exhilarated running down corridor after corridor with between my two best friends. It was fun to arrive breathless and panting at the entrance hall.

"I'll get us some toast." I told them, darting sideways into the Great Hall.

It was so early the Hall was almost deserted. There were a couple of second year Ravenclaws bent over their books and a surly looking Slytherin sixth year that used to try to copy off of me in potions in first year. I snatched a few pieces of toast and a bottle of pumpkin juice from the table and hurried back.

Amanda and Lana had caught their breath and were primping each other carefully. "I brought toast." I announced but neither of them made any sign that they'd heard me.

_Well, _I thought taking a big bite of my own slice, _more for me I guess._ But by the time I'd finished my piece a whole gaggle of girls had arrived and somehow they got both other pieces and the pumpkin juice. It wasn't just girls from my dormitory either. There were girls from all houses and grades who must have also been watching from their windows.

Lana's hand found my free one and squeezed. "This is just like the Cup only better." She whispered to me.

"Yeah." I lied. Personally I was terrified that one of my friends (her) was going to do something stupid and humiliating.

The doors seemed to open slowly and the Durmstrang kids slipped in single file. Krum was at the front and for just a moment I could see what Lana meant. There was something so appealing about how determined he looked as he strode toward the Goblet.

I knew there was going to be trouble when I felt Lana take her hand out of mine. I turned to her and missed the second when Krum put his piece of paper in the Goblet for a far more mortifying one. Lana began to clap and it spread until all the girls around me were clapping too and I was just standing there like an idiot staring at them.

I turned to face Krum. He looked surprised but not wholly gratified, in fact, he looked almost embarrassed. I saw him turn to the next person in line and say something to them with a shy grin. The other boy laughed a little bit and then went forward to put his name in too.

It must get old, I thought suddenly, being the center of attention. It must be awkward too, to be more interesting than your friends to strangers. I'd never thought about being famous in those terms. Suddenly, I had a whole new set of problems. I had worried about my friends getting their hearts broken or turning on each other. I had been nervous about them putting gratuitous displays on for his sake but now I had a niggling fear for him too—that maybe this would be as mortifying for him as it was for me.

I felt suddenly responsible for this whole bloody mess. I wasn't exactly perpetuating the problem but I certainly wasn't part of the solution. That was what I was thinking about when the second Durmstrang student stepped up to put his name in.

Lana had put her hand back into mine but I let go again and began to clap for him. The sound was awkward and lonely in the entrance hall and I was very conscious that every single person in the entrance hall had turned to stare at me.

That seemed to go on forever until finally Amanda gave a little tug on my ugly T-shirt to let me know she was still standing next to me, figuratively as well as physically, and began clapping too. Lana however looked angry with me and clenched her hands more tightly at her sides.

And then, to my surprise first Krum and the other Durmstrang kids started clapping too. The girls behind me began clapping too when Krum did and we didn't stop until the last boy had slipped his name into the flame. But even though it was a nice feeling I couldn't helping thinking about the look Lana had shot me when Krum first started clapping.

_Fin_

AN: Thank you all to those who reviewed! A couple of you mentioned that there weren't enough Krum romances but I'm hoping there will be more of a market since he was so attractive in the movie. Anyway please review this chapter (I'm hoping to get up to twenty by the time I post the next chapter). Here's a preview of the next chapter.

"_This isn't about me." I tried to say calmly. _

_"Are you sure? I think it is. Get a clue Tennessee! No one is ever going to like you if that's all you do!" Lana's voice was a little bit louder than it needed to be—loud enough to be heard through the bathroom door. "You're just jealous that I actually have a chance with Viktor!"_

_"Lana I'm trying to help you." I said very quietly. _

_I was trying to diffuse the situation but it was already too little too late. She was so angry she didn't look like my best friend anymore. She didn't even look friendly. "Look if you want Viktor too you can't just say so!" Her tone had that strained rationality of the truly angry but she was still talking at an unreasonable level. _

_"I don't want Viktor!" I said, beginning to get angry myself. _

_"Yeah whatever." She said in a disbelieving tone._

_ "You're really stupid about this!" I said. _

_"Well you aren't being a very good friend!" She countered._

_I bit my lip, trying not to cry I was so mad. "Oh yeah? Well I guess if just leaving your friend to study in the library every night counts as good friendship then no, I'm not a good friend!" I shouted. _

_Lana and I had had fights similar to this before but this was always the climax. When I started to tear up it was usually when the fight started to deescalate into reconciliation. _

_But not tonight._

P.S. What do you think about the previews of the coming chapters?


	3. Chapter 3

_Scarlet Scarves_

Chapter 3—Friends and Fanclubs

I stopped going with my friends when they went to see Krum after that first time. Amanda invited me the first couple of times but I made excuses. Lana hadn't brought up what had happened at the Goblet but I knew it was better if I just stayed away from Krum.

The Champions were chosen and, of course, Krum was one of them. Harry Potter did something spectacular for the fourth year running and got chosen too. Roger said he thought this wasn't fair—that Potter was a little cheat out for fame and fortune. I thought it wasn't fair to Harry. A fourth year to compete against seventh years? It seemed negligent of the staff to allow it. Still if spending my nights stupidly—worrying about things I couldn't solve or work out—I spent my evenings only slightly better.

With little else to do when all my friends were out stalking Krum I began spending the time in library by myself. It wasn't my first choice of preoccupations but neither was it insufferable. I love to read and my already good grades hardly suffered from the extra time.

For the most part it was a solitary time. Krum came in quite a bit but Lana and the other seemed more interested in peeking around the shelves at him and giggling than sitting with me. In fact I usually moved if he sat near me because I couldn't study with the noise they were making. It was a mean thing to think, especially concerning my friends, but I couldn't see how he didn't blow up at them and tell them to leave him the hell alone. At first I'd thought it was because he liked the attention but I dismissed that when I realized he never flirted back. Maybe, I reasoned, his English isn't good enough to tell them to leave because no one could possibly be enough of a stoic to endure it otherwise. Amanda sat with me sometimes when she had a lot of homework and Jack came in from time to time too. "What the hell are you doing here?" I asked when I saw him.

"Oh me? Trying to find a book about the Goblin Rebellion of 1258." He said.

"No you goof." I said. "What are you doing at Hogwarts!"

But he didn't seem ready to tell me yet. "I came for this thing called the Triwizard Tournament. You might have heard it mentioned a couple times? Big to-do about better relations between magical students."

"Oh yeah?" I played along. "How is it going for you?"

He spread his arms. "Not so well, not so well. I didn't get picked as champion."

"Oh? That's a downright shame." I said. "But seriously how the hell did you end up a Beaxubatons in the first place?"

"My mum's a console in France." He explained. "I took my first two years at Hogwarts but then we moved to France."

That explained why his English was so impeccable. "Oh yeah? I don't remember you."

He shrugged. "I remember you actually." He said. "I had a thing for you friend. I'm just surprised I recognized you but did you know that your voice hasn't changed at all since first year?"

He tried to bury the admission about his crush but it didn't work. "Lana?" I was shocked.

"No." He said. "The other one. Amanda."

"Really?" I tried to remember if he'd been successful. Amanda had had so many boyfriends even back then it was hard to be sure. "And how did that go?" I finally asked.

He laughed. "About as well as the Tournament did. I wasn't even a contender."

"She's still here if you want to meet her." I offered. "Cute as ever too."

He waved it off. "No it's fine. I moved to France and forgot all about that amongst the wine, women and absolutely revolting food."

"Ugh! I accidentally got some sort of raw fish puree last night. I thought it was potato salad." I admitted.

He laughed. "You've got to be careful."

The nights Jake came were always the best—he was so funny and sweet—but he had other friends and places to be and mostly I was alone. But then one night a much less expected visitor came: Roger. "So Lana is in love with Viktor Krum." He said, sitting down in the chair opposite me and putting his feet up on the table.

"Guess so." I said, trying not to squirm under his cool blue eyes.

"She's going about it all wrong." He said. "If I were Krum I'd run for the fucking hills if I saw her coming."

_Was he being a good brother?_ I wondered. Or was there something else he was driving at. "Yeah," I said, "I know."

"Why don't you tell her so?" He asked.

I shrugged. "She wouldn't listen to me."

"You mean you don't want to risk pissing her off. Even for her own good." He accused. That took me by surprise. Roger didn't seem like an insightful person but that was probably truer than I cared to admit. As he spoke he leaned casually across the table and pinned a _Support Cedric Diggory_ badge onto my cloak. It was so hard to think with his large, warm hands so close to my neck I could feel the heat.

"Maybe." I sighed, trying not to stare longingly up at him. "But the whole school has gone nutters about this guy. I'm supposed to turn the tide all by myself?"

Roger shrugged. "Or you could just let your friend make an ass of herself. Your choice." He said and then, as casually as anything took out his homework.

I tried to return to mine but what he'd said wouldn't leave my mind. He was probably right, I thought. To not tell her would be tantamount to not telling her if she had something in her teeth after dinner. "You really think she'd want to be told?" I asked Roger.

He leveled his electric blue gaze at me. "Wouldn't you?"

I bit my lip. "I've got to go." I said, stuffing my books back into my bag. A quick glance at my watch told me that Lana and the others would be in the dormitory, getting ready to go downstairs to dinner.

I can never be sure if I did the right thing that night for Lana or for Roger. Everybody knows that people do bad things for the right reasons but can we also do right things for bad reasons? I didn't know as I mounted the steps to our dormitory and I still don't know today.

She was almost ready when I arrived. She was just adjusting the Bulgarian scarf, a constant fixture of her dress now, low across her hips. "Can we talk?" I asked quietly.

She fluffed her bangs for a second, leaning close to the mirror to make sure they were just the way she wanted them. "Yeah all right." She said.

Girl powwows, the private ones, take place in the bathroom as a matter of tradition so we went there. I sat up on the sink and put my feet against the door to make sure no one came in. Lana sat in the first cubicle on the toilet seat. "What's up?" She asked. She could see herself in the mirror and ironically, she began to fuss with her hair again. _That's what's up!_ I wanted to scream.

I shrugged, suddenly uncomfortable. It isn't easy to criticize your friends. Faced against parents, teachers, the cruel stratified society your crueler peers impose, and the stress of school there is a somewhat tacit promise between friends not to heap more abuse on each other. Breaking it isn't impossible but it is hard.

"It's…well…" I began awkwardly. "It's about Krum."

She perked up. "He didn't say anything to you about me did he?" She asked.

"No," I said, "it's just…well do you think…I mean are you sure that Krum really wants the kind of…attention you're giving him?"

Lana stopped primping. "What are you saying?" She asked.

I almost aborted right then. I could have said something nice about her hair, told her I'd seen Krum looking at her that morning at breakfast, and she would have been happy to drop the subject but I didn't. "Well it's just that I don't know that many blokes that would take to a girl who was following them about." I said as politely as I could.

Lana brushed that off. "You just don't know Viktor. Yesterday Emily told me she heard that Jake told Timothy that Jane heard from Susan that Mary overhead Viktor telling one of his Durmstrang friends he thought that 'the girl with the scarf' was cute."

"They were speaking in English?" I said.

It was a big mistake. Lana had been willing to dismiss what I was saying as wrong but harmless before then but now she was getting angry. She turned and gave me a very long stare. "Yes." She said forcefully.

"Listen why don't you just try something a little less…" I couldn't say psycho and I couldn't think of another word. "Why don't we just invite him to sit with us at lunch sometime? He wasn't sorted into Slytherin so he doesn't have to sit at their table."

"Oh yeah why don't we do that?" She said sarcastically. "You don't understand anything about boys do you Tennessee!"

Being so confused about Roger that was a jab a little too close to the heart. "I do to." I said hotly.

She laughed meanly, standing to go scrutinize herself in the mirror. "Well if I'm going to fully prescribe to Tennessee Scarlet's School on How To Get A Man don't I have to stare at his arms over breakfast and then try to stifle every other sign that I like him?" She asked.

I closed my eyes. I'd always wondered if she knew I fancied her brother and now I knew. "This isn't about me." I tried to say calmly.

"Are you sure? I think it is. Get a clue Tennessee! No one is ever going to like you if that's all you do!" Her voice was a little bit louder than it needed to be—loud enough to be heard through the bathroom door. "You're just jealous that I actually have a chance with Viktor!"

"Lana I'm trying to help you." I said very quietly.

I was trying to diffuse the situation but it was already too little too late. She was so angry she didn't look like my best friend anymore. She didn't even look friendly. "Look if you want Viktor too you can't just say so!" Her tone had that strained rationality of the truly angry but she was still talking at an unreasonable level.

"I don't want Viktor!" I said, beginning to get angry myself.

"Yeah whatever." She said in a disbelieving tone.

I took my foot off the door and stood to face her. We were making so much noise that no one would try to come in even if their bladder was about to explode. "You're really stupid about this!" I said.

"Well you aren't being a very good friend!" She countered.

I bit my lip, trying not to cry I was so mad. "Oh yeah? Well I guess if just leaving your friend to study in the library every night counts as good friendship then no, I'm not a good friend!" I shouted.

Lana and I had had fights similar to this before but this was always the climax. When I started to tear up it was usually when the fight started to deescalate into reconciliation.

But not tonight.

"Oh don't you even give me that!" She shrieked. "You chose to be a weird little mole person this month! And probably just to have the rest of us run to your side you attention greedy little twit! You probably wanted to get the rest of us into the library so you could go out and get Viktor yourself."

The tears spilled over but I wiped them away quickly. All the fight seemed to go out of me with those first two drops. "Lana you know that isn't true." I said sadly but firmly. "I would never do that."

"Whatever." She huffed and then, flicking her bangs back into place, she marched right out of the bathroom.

I stayed there for a few seconds, took a few deep, shuddering breaths to calm myself and then followed her. I wanted to see if I could set things right before the fight scabbed over and scared. But the thirty seconds I'd spent was too long.

When I stepped out the whole dormitory was staring at me with accusing eyes. Right or wrong I had basically said in the bathroom that they were all boy-crazy stalkers who were hated by their idol and pitied by everyone else. My eyes swelled again and I fled down the stairs.

I knocked into Amanda coming up on the way. "Hey Tennessee I looked for you in the lib…" She trailed off as she saw the tears in my eyes. "What's wrong?" She asked.

I was still so upset I didn't really realize that Amanda didn't have any clue what had just happened. "And you too!" I almost shouted. "What the hell kind of friend are you to pick Lana and her stupid crush over me?"

Amanda stepped back. "Oh God I missed something big didn't I?" She said.

With the shouting out of my system all that was left was pessimistic self-pity. "I'll let Lana tell you." I said. "I'm sure you wouldn't believe my side of the story anyway." And then I ran down the stairs and out of the common room.

I knew I wasn't going to dinner or even back to the dormitory until I was sure all the other girls would be asleep. I went to the Owlry. It smelled bad and the floor was covered with droppings and the skeletons of little animals but I sat on of my bag and enjoyed the soothing noises of sleeping owls.

There was no one around to put a show on for (either by prolonging the tears or stifling them) so I cried hard for about two minutes and then stopped. I felt like I was stuck in an emotional eddy. On one hand I wanted very badly to be friends with Lana but on the other I wanted her to apologize for what she'd said. I moved between those—around and around—for about an hour without making any attempt to break the cycle. The second I got too close to either hating Lana or running down to the Great Hall and begging forgiveness, I'd start to move toward the other end.

After a while I took out a sheet of paper to write a letter but I couldn't think of anyone to write too. The people I most wanted to say something to were Lana, Amanda and Krum and I mostly wanted to tell them all to go fuck themselves. I went to the window and stuck my torso out as far as it would go into the cold, rushing wind. The tears on my face dried and my head began to clear slowly. I tore off Roger's _Support Cedric Diggory_ badge off my cloak and flung it as far as I could over the lake water. That felt productive.

The sun went down after a while and the owls began to leave. I couldn't see them after a while but I could hear the whoosh of their wings as they flew out the window over my head. By eleven o'clock I judged that most people would be asleep and was just about to leave when I heard feet on the steps.

There was of course nowhere to hide but I noxed my wand and hoped it wasn't Filch and for the first time that day, things went my way. Up the stairs came Fred and George Weasley. "Don't be so nice about it this time George" Fred was saying. "He needs to know we mean business."

I knew Fred and George of course, they were vaguely my friends too, but mostly in the sense that we were all Gryffindor sixth years. We'd hung out in a few classes last year but we weren't the kind of friends who sent each other owls over the break. For a laugh I waited until they were almost into the Owlry and then said, very loudly, "What are you to up to?"

The effect was everything I could have hoped for. The two of them nearly jumped out of their skins. "Tennessee Scarlet I am ashamed of you!" Fred scolded me when I'd stopped laughing. (It took a while as I was still in the hyper-emotional place where everything is hysterically something).

"What the hell are you doing here past curfew?" As he spoke he raised his wand so the light from it fell on my face and my face must have still been red and puffy from the crying because his voice trailed off at the end.

"Bloody hell." I heard George hiss.

I sighed and ran a hand through my rumpled hair. "How about you don't ask me that and I won't ask you the same?" I proposed. I was so far past modesty or pride the state I knew I must be in was close to laughable.

"Fair enough." Fred agreed.

There was an awkward pause of silence. "Well," I said finally, "I was just off. See you guys later."

"If you want to wait we can walk with you back to the common room." Fred offered.

"Oh…Okay." I agreed.

With Fred and George with me making it back to the Fat Lady felt easy but as I slipped by her bed, Amanda sat up. "Tennessee? Is that you?" She asked the darkness.

I didn't answer.

"I know you're there Tennessee and I'm not mad at you. I don't think either you or Lana are right but I'm not taking sides."

Afraid my voice would betray that I'd started crying again I didn't answer.

"All right." She said. "We can talk about it in the morning."

I pulled the covers over my head and huddled down under them, feeling as though my heart must being squeezed in my chest. My last waking thought was, _so this is what Roger wanted. But why?_

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The next morning I pretended to sleep through when the rest of the dormitory left. I was nervous that Amanda might try to wake me up but she didn't. After the last girl had trickled out I got up and dressed hurriedly. I was genuinely hungry after missing dinner the night before so I hurried downstairs. But when I came through the doors into the Great Hall I realized that I had a big problem. I always sat with my dormitory but I knew I couldn't sit with them now. I knew that even before Lana said loudly, "well look what the cat dragged in."

I blushed scarlet. I must have looked like something the cat dragged in too. I hadn't bothered to shower the night before or brush my hair this morning. "Shut up Lana." I head Amanda say. "Tennessee!" She called to me. "Over here Tennessee!"

But I pretended not to hear her. I stood in the door, temporizing for what felt like ages and ages. It felt too like everybody in the Great Hall was staring at me and thinking what a freak I was. I could see the back of Jack's head from the door but he was at the Ravenclaw table with his Beauxbatons friends. I couldn't sit there. I could see Roger, and really this whole mess was his fault, but he was at the Ravenclaw table too (and would never let me tag along with him anyway). For the first time since I'd arrived at Hogwarts I felt unwelcome. "Oi! Scarlet!" It was Fred Weasley and I'd never been gladder to hear his voice. "There's a free seat here!"

When I woke up that morning my stomach had felt almost empty. When I'd come in it had felt tied up in tight little knots but now I was sure I couldn't feel it at all I was so relieved. "Thanks Fred." I said as I plopped down in my chair. "Thanks a bunch."

"Yeah no problem." He waved it off.

"You want to talk about it?" George offered.

I stared into my plate, trying not to cry because they were being so nice. "Of course she doesn't." Angelina Johnson cut in. "Now someone help me with this Charms homework."

But you can't want to cry around Fred and George for too long. They had me laughing by the end of breakfast and so comfortable by lunch I was willing to talk about it. "Lana and I just got into a fight about Krum." I said without warning, midway through my sandwich.

"Over what a psycho she is about him?" George asked.

I giggled nervously. "Yeah, I guess so."

"Well I can't say that Fred and I don't moon over Viktor…" George started.

"Viky as we like to call him." Fred cut in.

"Yes, thank you Fred. We do tend to moon over Viky but I can almost guarantee you're welcome to hang out with us while we do." George said.

I giggled. "Well I'll probably take you up on that more than you're bargaining for." I warned them.

It was an odd thing but that day, which had started so abysmally, was the best I'd had since Krum had arrived. Angelina let me partner with her in charms, George passed me a funny note in Transfiguration (a picture of Krum with exaggerated good looks and hearts all around him) and Lee Jordan said I was the best help he'd ever had in potions when I helped him with his homework.

To my surprise, however, we didn't go to the library that evening ("oh Madame Pince would never let us do this anywhere near her precious books"). The three of them took me instead to a tiny little room off the fifth floor corridor. "All right Tennesse we're going to show you our headquarters but first you have to swear a pledge." George said when we'd arrived at the mirror that covered the door.

I thought he was joking. "Okay." I agreed with a giggle.

"I swear to abandon any quaint attachment to the Hogwarts Student Code of Conduct I might have at the door." He said.

I raised my hand and repeated him. "I swear to abandon any quaint attachment to the Hogwarts Student Code of Conduct I might have at the door."

"I promise never to reveal the location of this room to any teacher or authority figure."

I giggled. "Come on you guys I'm not going to rat you out."

"You've got to swear!" Fred pushed.

"Okay I promise never to reveal the location of this room to any teacher or authority figure."

"I pledge my talents in mischief and mayhem to the cause of good and good times." I wondered if I had any talents in mischief and mayhem but I repeated it anyway.

For the big deal they'd made of it the room was somewhat of an anticlimax. It was about three meters in length and breadth and most of the space was taken up by the oddest collection of furniture. There was a couch and two chairs but there was also an oven, an empty cauldron (tipped on it's side), three sets of kitchen knives and a muggle toaster. Most of the surfaces in the room were covered with books taken from the library and papers. It looked more like a bookworms hideaway than Fred and Georges. On top of that I was surprised to see that most of the books had titles like _The Joy of Cooking _(magical edition), _Magical Sweets _and _Tastes Like Magic!_.

But I didn't feel like I could ask too many questions so I settled myself on the couch and took out my charms homework, pretending that I was listening raptly to everything they were saying. They crowded around the cauldron and began muttering to themselves. Occasionally there was a loud bang and the smell of boiled eggs or burning cooking filled the room.

"What are you three trying to make anyway?" I finally asked on the second day of mysterious booms and smells.

They looked up and for a second if I'd made a mistake. Fred glanced at the other two and then said, "Creams." He said, passing me the book.

I checked over the recipe. It wasn't that hard at all. "I can make these." I offered, coming to peer into the cauldron. There was some black gloo congealed to the bottom.

"Can you really?" Lee looked downright impressed.

"Sure." I said, rolling up my sleeves. "I could make them without magic too. I'm actually not a bad cook."

I scoured the cauldron first and then checked the recipe. I'd said that I could cook them without magic but mostly just to impress them. Cooking with magic wasn't too different from muggle cooking. You still had to put it all together you could just use spells for kneading dough and breaking eggs and shaping the dough. "You three just sit down over there and I'll have these out in no time.

"I told you we should have gotten a girl!" George crowed triumphantly as the first batch began to harden in the oven and the smells began to reach the couch where they were all studying. I glowed with pride and pleasure.

"Actually as I recall you saying that, and I quote, 'cooking can't be that hard.'" Lee Jordan said lazily.

"Well the toffee wasn't!" George said defensively.

"We bought the toffee mate! We didn't make it remember!"

"What are these for anyway?" I asked when I brought the first pan out and cooled them magically.

"We've got to tell her." George said, his mouth full of creams. "We're never going to get ours to taste this good. Our only hope is to beg her to join us."

"Join what?" I asked.

"We're starting a company." Fred explained. "A provider of magical pranking material."

"Like Zonko's?" I asked.

"Better." Lee said. "Just think of it Tennessee! A whole shop full of things you have to test on your mates first because you aren't sure what they'll do to you! Row after row of succulent candies that'll make you break into boils or breath fire." It was a strange dream to be sure but to hear the three of them talk about it, it seemed almost romantic and appealing.

"We've got a bunch of ideas but so far none of the food has come along well, except the toffees which we bought." Fred continued.

"You could be head chef!" Lee offered.

"And we'd give you a cut of the profits of course!" George offered.

If they'd asked me that morning I would have said no. The whole venture was on very shaky ground with the school rules, the Ministry regulation and it was all potentially dangerous to boot. But that morning seemed like a lifetime ago. _It might be nice to have some extra pocket money_, the economist in me whispered. _You owe them big for what they did for you,_ my conscience piped up. _It would be fun_, my heart screamed, _to let your hair down a bit_. "Okay." I agreed. "I want thirty-five percent."

"Twenty!"

"Twenty-five."

"Done."

Amanda was waiting for me again when I finally went upstairs. "You know you've got a lot of nerve being mad at me for what Lana said!" She said.

"Shhhh!" I hissed at her. "You're going to wake everybody else up! And I'm not mad at you!" I came to sit on her bed so we could whisper back and forth.

"You've got a funny way of showing it."

"Listen you know I can't sit at that table any more." I said. "I hope we can still be friends but I think Lana and I might be genuinely through. I'm sorry I ignored you this morning."

She nodded. "Okay." Nothing ever phased Amanda. She knew where she was going and how to get there. She had your number; she had her number; she had life's number.

And I couldn't help but being deadly envious as I crawled into bed.

Fin 

AN: A big thanks to all who reviewed the last chapter! What do you think of her becoming friends with Fred and George? Too cliché? How about what Lana did to her? Too predictable? Too trite? And someone mentioned they noticed some incongruities between my American voice and the British backdrop. If anyone notices anything in particular drop me a line. I'd love to fix it. Here's a preview of the next chapter.

_"Vhat are you doing?" Krum asked. _

_ "Er…looking up brownie recipes." I said. _

_"Vhat are frownys?" He asked. _

_I giggled. Who could be frowny about brownies? I wondered but it was stupid, of course they wouldn't teach the word brownies in English Class. "They're like squares of chocolate…goodness." I began but gave up. I turned the book around so he could see the picture. _

_"Oh." He said something that must have been the Bulgarian word for brownies and handed the book back to me._

_"Yeah exactly." I said. _

_"Are you a good cook?" He asked. _

_"Yeah." I said. "I'm okay." I circled something lightly with a pencil and gently folded down the edge of the page. "Are you?" I asked, just to make conversation._

_He shook his head. "Just Quidditch for me." _

_I cocked my head to the left, unsure how to answer that. "Well," I said finally, "you're a much better Quidditch player than I am a cook."_


	4. Chapter 4

_Scarlet Scarves_

Chapter 4—Viktor and I

The time to the first task wore on and things began to lighten up for me. This crushing dread of evenings, a weight I hadn't even know I was carrying, had been lifted. I could almost swear I was breathing deeper and tasting food as I hadn't been before. I still had a painful twinge whenever I saw Lana but Fred, George and Lee proved themselves to be outstanding friends. I was busy too, which helped. When I wasn't cooking for 'Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes' (what Fred and George had told me their company was clandestinely called) I was doing homework in the library or watching them fly on the Quidditch Pitch.

Nights were hard because I had to return to my old dormitory but Fred, George and Lee usually stayed out later than my dormitory stayed up and everybody but Amanda had decided to just ignore me in the mornings. It was unhelpful when I wanted to borrow nail clippers or toothpaste and got the day off to a bad start without fail but it was a truce at least and Fred and George were always there at breakfast to cheer me up.

I couldn't see how they managed to pull of the schoolwork with all the work they did for Wheezes. I stipulated early on that they could do no 'product testing' on me but in doing so I forfeited all clearance to the other parts of the business. ("You have to be useful to be let in on these secrets mate!" Fred said, throwing an arm around my shoulders). I was curious at first but in the end I was too grateful to be hanging out with them (and too busy too) to press the matter very far. I remember those days fondly—the smells in the fifth floor room, George making faces at Lana when she wasn't looking in Transfiguration until I was laughing so hard Professor McGonagall made me step out into the hall and evenings on the pitch.

The Gryffindor team had no official practice of course but the whole team (except Harry who everyone assumed was too busy with Triwizard business) met two to three times a week anyway to keep their skills sharp. I was the referee (a very lax one as I knew about 40 of the fouls) and the stand in Seeker (so unconfident on my broom they never bothered releasing the Snitch). I was so bad at both of my jobs I spent most of my time in the stands, reviewing my homework or ideas for new 'Wheezes.' On the rare occasion a possible foul was committed I could usually tell what the punishment should be based on who the accused was (Fred or George were worth a penalty shot and a ten minute grounding for example, while Angelina only merited a verbal warning).

But then one morning my job was usurped.

It was a Saturday so windy that I hadn't even bothered to bring my broom and I was huddled in the lee of the stands when I saw a figure approaching the pitch, a broomstick slung across his shoulders. I knew, from the gait, who it was even before he was close enough for me to make out his features.

Viktor Krum arrived on the Hogwart's Quidditch pitch.

I checked and was relieved to find he had somehow shaken off his fan club. I quickly pretended I hadn't seen him coming until he was about ten meters off. "Hello." I said, looking up from my papers, and keeping my voice friendly but casual when he was close enough to hear me in the wind.

I'd be lying if I said that my stomach wasn't spinning in my stomach but, at least mentally, I was determined to be as cool as calm as I could. I had no thoughts of what he might think of me, it never occurred to me that I could impress him in any way, I mostly didn't want to embarrass myself.

"Hello." It occurred to me then that I had never heard Viktor Krum speak. His voice was a beautiful bass but his English was so heavily accented I had to pay attention to make it out.

I smiled up at him as brightly as you can into such a surly expression. "The Pitch probably won't be free until this afternoon." I said in as friendly a voice as I could. "But you could come back then."

"Oh, I noticed that your team has no Seeker. I vas wondering if I might fill in?" He sounded almost shy, as if he honestly expected this amateur team to tell him he couldn't play with them.

"Oh." I was stunned. "Well…I mean of course! I mean we'll have to go back to the game closet to get the Snitch but that shouldn't be a problem." We'd taken the referee whistle for me out with the other equipment but I hadn't touched it till now. It made a weirdly shrill noise but one that carried even in the wind.

"What the hell?" Fred said as he landed. "You missed me cracking George with my bat but you pick up on Froddering? Are you high or just crue…" but he saw Krum just then, "Blimey!"

Blimey! seemed to be the general sentiment of the rest of the team too. None of the girls on the team were as silly as my friends had been but Alicia Spinnet was trying to tame her wind-wild hair surreptitiously and Katie Bell was giggling something into her ear. The boys too were slightly starstruck. They were all punching each other's shoulders and staring at Krum in a queer, awed way. "Well we've got to have a proper game now!" Lee, who was playing Keeper, said when Krum had explained he wanted to fill in for Seeker. "Let's go get the reserve team!"

Everyone seemed to be for this idea so they ran off toward the school. "Wait! Fred! Give me the key to the shed! I've got to get the Snitch out!" I called after them.

Fred turned and chucked the keys at me. "I have no idea where it is!" He called to me.

The game shed was a little shack about fifty meters outside of the Pitch. Isn't it funny how things never work out the way they should, I thought as we walked in silence to it. Lana had spent the last two months trying to get this man to notice her and I was the one walking with him, even though I hadn't done more than come to practice this morning. " I am Viktor Krum." He said as we reached the shack, as if I didn't know. His English I realized, was actually very good. His grammar and syntax were almost impeccable but hard to distinguish through the thick accent laid on top of them.

"Tennessee Scarlet." I said, offering him a hand to shake. "You might want to stay here. This is going to be a mission."

The Snitch hadn't been used in so long it's box was all the way in the back and I had to climb over a lawnmower, knock down several cans of paint and petroleum and move another box off the top of it before I could get at it. "Here! Catch this!" I said tossing him the box. He caught easily and opened it. The Snitch flitted out but he snatched it easily from the air and put it back in.

"I saw you at the World Cup." I told him on the way back. "That Ponski Feint thing was incredible."

"Vhat feint?" He asked.

"You know the…" I played out Lynch chasing him and then crashing into the ground in the air with my hands. "The Ponski feint."

He smiled (the first, I realized, I'd ever seen on his face). "Oh the Vronski feint."

Well I'd only been a letter or two off. "Yeah that one."

"Thank you." He looked genuinely pleased.

When we got back to the Pitch the rest of the team hadn't returned from the castle. "You want to warm up?" I asked. I had run out of material to talk to him about with the Wronski Feint and now it was downright awkward to sit next to him.

"Just a fun game?" He asked.

_For you maybe,_ I thought. "Yep."

He shook his head.

I went back to looking for a good recipe for what Fred, George and Lee wanted to call Backstab Brownies (they made the eater unable to stop complimenting everyone they saw). In my opinion Best Friend Brownies seemed more appropriate.

"Vhat are you doing?" Krum asked.

"Er…looking up brownie recipes." I said.

"Vhat are frownys?" He asked.

I giggled. _Who could be frowny about brownies?_ I wondered but it was stupid, of course they wouldn't teach the word brownies in English Class. "They're like squares of chocolate…goodness." I began but gave up. I turned the book around so he could see the picture.

"Oh." He said something that must have been the Bulgarian word for brownies and handed the book back to me.

"Yeah exactly." I said.

"Could you say that word again please?" He asked.

"Brownies." I said.

"Frownies." He said.

"No." I said. "Bee Bee Brownies."

"Brownies."

"Yeah that's it."

"Are you a good cook?" He asked.

"Yeah." I said. "I'm okay." I circled something lightly with a pencil and gently folded down the edge of the page. "Are you?" I asked, just to make conversation.

He shook his head. "Just Quidditch for me."

I cocked my head to the left, unsure how to answer that. "Well," I said finally, "you're a much better Quidditch player than I am a cook."

For some reason, he found that very funny. He had a very nice laugh, I decided. It seemed to come right from the hip (both literally and figuratively) and like his voice, seemed to rattle around in your chest like bass based music from really good speakers. When he laughed I couldn't imagine why I'd thought he looked surly when I'd first saw him. I wanted to make him do it again.

"You'd better get going." I said. "The reserve team is here."

"Vhat?" He asked.

I pointed with the butt of my pencil. "Quidditch remember?"

"Oh." He stood. "Thank you." The T sounded like a S or a D, I couldn't decide which. He turned to walk toward the other players (who were running full stop for the Pitch) but stopped about two meters off. "I am certain you are a very good cook." He said and it was my turn to laugh.

To keep things fair they put him on the reserve team. It was about evenly matched too, or at least evenly matched enough to be a good time. It was incredible to watch Krum fly though. In context, at the World Cup he'd been amazing, put next to my house team he was awesome. None of the other players were in the same number system of good. He was, "unreal," as Fred said when the game had ended (180 to 190 to the reserve team). "Absa-fucking-lutely unreal."

I giggled. "Well he is a pro. Literally."

"Oh the reserve team is never going to shut up about this." George said, glancing over to where they were doing a celebratory dance. "Never mind if they had Viktor bloody Krum on their team. All we're going to hear about is how we lost to the second string."

"Well you did." I pointed out. The three of them were sweating pretty hard for such a cold morning but looking exhilarated nonetheless. Lee had a bleeding lip and Fred had a bruised arm but they looked happy.

"What have you got on brownies?"

"Not much." I said, handing over the book "I was watching the game."

I'd scribbled a half-finished recipe in the margin but that was little more than an ingredients list as of yet. I'd taken to making up my own recipes for new Wheezes. Magical properties are just another ingredient you could add to food but to work they need to be folded into the dough just like anything else. You can't simply spell something after it was created. And it worked best when the food had some sort of magical anchor in it. For the Canary Creams the eggs had been enough but for Backstab Brownies I wanted to add some sort of inhibition remover. I'd decided on rum. Of course there were no recipes I liked for rum brownies so I'd decided to make my own.

"Is the rum going to make it alcoholic?" Lee asked. Krum approached the four of us just then but Lee couldn't stop mid sentence so he just plowed on. "I mean are we going to have to put some sort of age limit?"

I shifted back and forth from shoe to shoe but finally shook my head, wondering how this conversation must sound from Krum's point of view. "No. The rum itself will burn up in the oven but it'll leave the taste behind."

We turned to Krum quickly.

"You all played very vell." Viktor told the three of them. He was sweating too a little bit but not as seriously as the three of them. It was the physically difference between playing your hardest and just having a good time.

"You were amazing man." Fred said. "Absolutely amazing!"

"Brilliant." George agreed.

Viktor waved them off. "If you ever vant to play again please tell me at breakfast." He said slowly.

"Er…yeah…of course." Fred said dumbly. "Brilliant."

"Good luck vith your brownies." He said to me. He made a short nod that could have been the beginning of a bow and then started off for his ship.

"I can't bloody believe that Viktor Krum wants to play Seeker with us again." Lee said after an honorary moment of stunned silence had passed. "Let me stop lying. I can't believe Viktor Krum wanted to play Seeker with us at all."

"Well it better not be for another couple of weeks." George groaned. "I feel like I'm about to fall over."

Krum nodded to us whenever he saw us in the library after that evening and he played with the Gryffindor team occasionally. "That's so weird." George whispered to me.

"What's so weird?" I asked, thinking he meant something on our potions homework and pulling his paper over to see.

"Krum." George said. "I've just realized that you've got what Lana wants and you've got it because she drove you to it."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"I mean it would be good revenge if Krum waved to you and not Lana in the library but it just occurred to me that it's actually Lana's fault. If she hadn't kicked you out of your seat at the table you wouldn't have started hanging out with us and you wouldn't have been there on the Pitch that day. Isn't that ironic?" He said.

I shrugged. "If you say so." Sometimes the twins seemed to be angrier with Lana than I was about the shitty thing she'd done to me. I was, honestly, almost done with being angry with her. Almost all I felt these days when I saw her was a poignant nostalgia for the fun things we used to do. "Now can we talk about Canary Creams again?"

8888

The day of the first task dawned cloudy but warm. Breakfast was a silent affair. It seemed, finally, to have dawned on the Gryffindor table that Harry might be in mortal danger. We'd planned for weeks to release Canary Creams on the general populace at the celebratory party but that morning there was a question in our heads that hadn't been there the night before: _what if our champion died?_ And no one wanted to ask it. Fred, George and Lee were all trying not to look at each other or me the whole meal.

The mood as we filed into the stands was like the World Cup on steroids. There were no enforced sections for schools but the stands had four distinct blocks of color. Scarlet for Durmstrang, red and gold for Gryffindor, yellow for the rest of Hogwarts and a light blue for Beauxbatons. Fights broke out once or twice where the edges of color pushed together and had to be broken up by teachers. I saw Jack as we were filing into stands but he didn't wave to me as he usually did. I winked as I walked by him and he winked back and smiled but I think we were both extremely conscious that our schools were competing.

"This is weird." I said commented once to George but I was wearing red and gold from head to toe so it packed a light punch.

"Tell me about it." He said, hoisting the banner he'd made in support of Harry up higher.

Still, I couldn't help but feel that once we found out that the challenge was dragons, real live, fire-breathing dragons, was some of that tension seemed to melt away. And by the time Cedric Diggory appeared on the field to face his dragon there were exactly two teams in my mind: the Dragons and the Humans and all I really wanted was a shut out. If Harry came out on top that was great but it didn't mean that much compared to the more looming threat of Harry not coming out at all.

Watching it I felt like I was going to have a heart attack at any second. I had my hand on poor Lee Jordan's forearm and I kept unconsciously gripping it really hard whenever something exciting happened. Lee didn't notice at the time, probably because every time I clamped down something much more interesting was happening, but he found later he had a little braceleted bruise shape where my hand had been. "Fuck but you've got a grip!" He moaned later. His arm was swollen a little bit and he could barely move it. I apologized profusely of course but it was far too late to live it down. They'd never open another jar of cooking supplies for me ever again without some crack about it.

Maybe it was my Gryffindor sensibilities but I couldn't help thinking that Harry's way was the cleverest—a very simple spell but with good results. "Oh I do hope he can think of something as good for the next task!" I said as the four of us ran up to the fifth floor directly after the task had ended.

"Oh give it a rest and just be glad he did so well on this one!" Fred said.

We stopped by the kitchen too, to pick up some normal food to mingle our own with. Before this year, before I'd started hanging about with Lee and the twins, I'd never broken any school rules so I'd never been to the kitchens. The house elves were strange to me, being muggle born. Hermione Granger, a fourth year in Gryffindoor, had been trying to tell me for months now that they were a suffering slave class but they seemed downright chipper to me.

"Of course they're happy!" George laughed when I mentioned how surprised I was. "This is what they live for." In the corner of my eye I saw Fred filch three bottles of rum off the shelf. I'd been wondering where they'd been getting all my cooking supplies. Of course I realized that everything I was cooking the house elves could do and just as well if not better, but they'd hardly let the twins stand over them and hex the food.

The party itself was fabulous. I spent most of it on the couch with Amanda, who was mooning (in a very, very, very hushed voice) about how cute Diggory had looked today. It seemed like a little bit of disloyalty until I looked around and realized that Lana and the others hadn't even showed up for Harry's party. I wondered, vaguely if they'd been invited onto the Durmstrang ship, but when Amanda and I finally tromped upstairs well past midnight they were all up in our dormitory.

It was Amanda who pushed open the door but I could feel, even from behind her, the sort of word-vacuum we were stepping into, the kind that can only be created by a room full of teenage girls who have just recently stopped talking about you. There was a pro-Krum banner hung draped over the window and they were all sitting around a cluster of butterbeers, staring wordless at the two of us framed in the door.

I froze but Amanda grabbed my hand and pulled me through, yawning theatrically. "Jesus I'm tired." Her words seemed to echo against the empty walls.

We pushed through them to our beds and slid under our covers. "Oh my god, she's such a freak." I heard one girl near my bed hiss as the buzz of the gossip bees grew again. I turned on my side away from the chatter, feeling as if I might finally see the humor in girls like these.

8888

The Canary Creams were a hit.

I spent the whole weekend cooking and we'd still sold out by Tuesday morning. I spent every waking moment I wasn't either in class or doing my class work making more Creams. Not that I was doing all the work. Overnight Fred, George and even Lee had been replaced by very professional businessmen. They wouldn't let anyone help me cook (because the recipe and hex were now highly classified) but they hired a couple of first years to package the creams into boxes and bags for the holidays and they brought me my meals right from the kitchen to the fifth floor room.

I was so busy I even had to work during lunches to meet the demand, which is the reason I was late to Transfiguration on Thursday. "Now that the four of you have been good enough to join us I'd like to continue what I was saying." Professor McGonagall said, scowling at us as we hurried to take our seats. "If that's all right with you."

"Sure thing Professor." Fred said, which is really the only thing you can say to something like that if you're Fred Weasley I suppose.

Professor McGonagall, probably because she knew what she said was tantamount to entrapment, continued without more than a withering glare to Fred. "As part of the Triwizard Tournament Hogwarts will be hosting a Christmas ball this year. The Yule ball will take place in the Great Hall, starting at eight o'clock on Christmas Day and ending at midnight. Only fourth year students and above will be allowed though you may invite a younger student if you wish."

I didn't even need to turn my head to know who had exploded into giggling chatter in the left corner of the room. Out of habit, I blushed. _They aren't your friends anymore, they aren't your responsibility anymore, _I had to remind myself. "Dress robes are to be worn," Professor McGonagall continued when she'd stared them all into silence. "But before we go any further than that let me make it perfectly clear that, although I expect you all to have a good time, I also expect the highest level of behavior from all of you! Severe punishment will be awarded to any student who embarrasses the school in any manner!" She glanced around the room with a very stern expression but I couldn't help but feel that her eyes lingered in my corner of the room for extra time. "Now," she continued, "with that out of the way, on to Transfiguration."

Of course no one felt much like concentrating after that. We were torn, the lot of us, between a little hidden fantasy about going with someone in particular, and the mortifying prospect of going alone. I envied the boys that week; at least they had some control over their own destiny. Fred, George and Lee insisted that at least I didn't have the fear of rejection to consider but, still, it seemed like a more than fair tradeoff to me.

I knew, of course, who I wanted to go with, but I knew too that Roger would never ask me. He was a year older than me, very handsome, a Quidditch captain and very popular. Still I couldn't help looking at him hopefully mornings in the Great Hall. I was so obvious in fact that Fred finally turned over his shoulder one morning and said, in a voice that seemed to carry over the whole hall, "who the hell do you keep looking at anyway Tennessee?"

I kept my eyes on my food from then on.

The Wednesday that was the last day before our break dawned and still no one had asked me. Fred, George and Lee all had dates so there was no chance one of them might get desperate and as me as a friend (a slim hope to begin with as they were all so popular). In fact everybody seemed to have ended up with their dream date and I was starting to panic a little bit. (It is an interesting thing to be panicked right around Christmas; The school decorations had been stepped up this year to impress our guests and even I could see how funny it was to walk through all the holy, mistletoe and carols feeling like my stomach was full of lead.)

Amanda accosted me after my last period class in the hall that day. "Guess what!" She said, her voice ringing with the stress of holding back her secret.

"What?" I asked tiredly.

"Guess who asked me to that ball?" She said, apparently feeling that just the one guessing question wasn't a sufficient build up.

"The Minister of Magic." I said sarcastically. I didn't mean to be so mean to Amanda but I was irritated and bitter that I hadn't been invited yet. I needn't have worried though: she was so happy she barely seemed to notice my sarcasm. "Better!" She squealed.

"Oh God it isn't Viktor Krum is it?" _Lana or one of the other girls will kill her in her sleep,_ I thought.

"Better!" She was dancing in the toes of her shoes by this time. "Jack Smythe!"

I should have seen it coming. Jack had said he liked her (he'd denied that it was a current thing but I'd never really believed him) and he wasn't the type to be too shy to do anything about it. I smiled and tried to match her excitement. "That's great!" I squealed. "He's great!"

"I know!" She said. "His French is divine!"

"What are you wearing?" I asked.

"Oh I can't decide yet!" She sighed. "But I'm going to Hogsmead tomorrow to look. Want to come?"

I didn't want to admit to Amanda, who had always been so beautiful and never had any problem getting boys to like her, that I hadn't been asked. "Don't you want to go with Lana?" I asked.

She didn't go for it. "No." She said. "She's going with all the other girls anyway."

I was backed into a corner. "I…I mean to say…it's just that…well I…No one asked me to the ball." I finally managed.

Amanda's face fell for a second. It was really sweet actually: she looked almost confused, as if she couldn't believe no one had snapped me up yet, but she bounced back quickly. "Well there are still three days!" She said in a very cheering voice. "Someone'll ask you soon and then you'll be glad you've already got the dress!"

"No, I mean I really don't want to Amanda." I protested. "I mean…" This was also hard to admit. "What if I don't get to use it? It'll look so silly hanging by my bed."

She bit her lip. Even she couldn't ignore the fact that Lana and the others would mock me mercilessly if I bought a dress and had no date. "You can go with Jack and I." She said determinedly. "As a group."

That sounded worse to me. I didn't want to tag along with Jack and Amanda and ruin their date. I didn't want to be a third wheel, being passed from date to date so everybody else could have a little romantic alone time. Still Amanda was nothing if not persistent and it would be almost as hard not to go at all. "Okay." I sighed. "Okay." I could always just leave if it got too bad.

"See you tomorrow!" Amanda said, giving me a little hug. "Gotta split!"

Fred, George and Lee had detention that night (some end of term spirits had possessed them to let off a bag of dungbombs in Snape's dungeon) and the demand for Creams had slacked off recently as everyone had learned not to accept food from other people so I had nothing to do that night. It was almost my first solitary night since my fight with Lana.

The library was almost deserted. Very few people hang out in the library at the start of a break but I almost preferred it that way as I set myself up in my favorite little window nook with a sappy romance and a bag of creams (not hexed). The library was warm and the pane of glass was cool. My book was interesting and the creams were delicious. And best of all there were no giggling ex-best friends behind the bookshelves tonight to disturb my concentration.

I was just at the point in my book where it is revealed that the mysterious Count Drago was the same person as the roguish but sexy King of Thieves that had kidnapped Esmerelda and stolen her heart in the first part of the book all along (except without the mask) and she has fallen in love with him twice, when I suddenly became aware that someone was walking toward me.

I looked up and was surprised to find I was staring right into Viktor Krum's eyes. "Good Evening." He spoke more carefully than he had on the Pitch.

"Hello." I said as pleasantly as I could. I really wanted to find out what happened to Esmerelda and Drago.

"I vas just vondering if you vould consider going to the Ball with me." He didn't say it like an English boy would have. He didn't speak the language well enough to make himself seem casual, as most boys do when they asked girls out. He didn't even hesitate or qualify it with something like 'if you don't have someone else to go with' or 'if you aren't busy.' It wasn't even as if he knew what I was going to say (I hadn't, after all, been following him about for a month). It was a very bold thing to do, I realized later, (asking a girl out when you literally didn't speak the same language I mean).

I blinked. "What?" If had thought it through long enough I might have tried to sound less stunned but it just popped out. He seemed to think it was a problem with the way he'd said it because he merely repeated what he'd said before, enunciating more clearly. Still, this was helpful as it gave me time to think. "No I understood." I explained. "I just…I mean…that is…" There was, I realized, no tactful way to say it. "Don't you have someone better to go with?"

"No." He said, very firmly. "There is no one better." I was shocked (stunned really). After about four years of dancing around my crush on Roger I'd almost forgotten that the truth was still an option. And he said it so unapologetically it was impossible not to admire.

My first impulse was to say yes about a million times but just as I started to speak a vision of Lana and her Bulgarian scarf popped into my head. If I went with Viktor it would prove that I was right and she was wrong and that would certainly put our friendship past the pail of a patch up. It was just the sort of thing I'd always sworn never to do (loose a friend over a boy that is).

For someone I couldn't read at all Viktor could read me like a book. "You are voried about your friend?" He asked and he drew his fingers across his hips where Lana kept her scarf so I knew which friend he was talking about.

"No." I lied. "We aren't friends anymore."

"My fault?" He asked.

"No." I said. "Not really anyway." That was the truth too. If Lana and I fought it was our own damn fault and no one else's. Viktor hadn't asked the two of us to be so petty and immature. "I'd love go with you." I said firmly.

"Thank you Tenn-see." He said and, with a short bow, turned and left.

I sat there for almost a full minute while my body processed and processed what had just happened. I tried, in my head to separate the pros and cons of going with Viktor, but in the end all I felt was overwhelming happiness. Whatever I did I couldn't make myself care about how much this might hurt Lana or even if I might have given up Roger to go with Krum. He was so nice and so handsome and he made it so I couldn't feel my legs when he looked at me and that was all I cared about.

I jumped out of my seat and did a little dance and then, Esmerelda and Drago forgotten, I ran as fast as I could to the girl's dormitory to find Amanda. "What the hell are you on about?" She asked as I pulled her bodily by the arm into the bathroom and shut the door.

I turned on the sink for extra secrecy and put my foot against the door. "You have to promise not to tell anyone!" I said.

"Okay." She agreed.

"No really promise!" I insisted.

She sighed, annoyed. Amanda hated secrets, especially secrets she didn't know. She put her hand over her heart. "I swear not to tell anyone what you're going to tell me. Now go on and tell me already!"

I grabbed her arm and pulled her so I was whispering in her ear. "Viktor Krum just asked me to the Yule Ball." Unlike Amanda, who could savor these moments, I knew I had to get the truth out there quickly or it wouldn't have enough momentum to make it out at all.

Amanda almost imploded. "OH MY HOLY HELL!" She shouted. I gestured frantically for her to keep it down so she started whispering frantically. "Where? What? When? What did he say? Are you happy? Who was there?"

I related the whole story to her in whispers.

"Oh wow." She said when I was done. "I am going to find you the prettiest dress robes ever!"

I giggled. "You don't think I did a bad thing? To Lana I mean." I asked.

Amanda stared at me for a long, long time. "Tennessee." She said finally. "Sometimes you really are too much. Lana would be rubbing this in your face right now if she were in your place. Don't get me wrong, I love the girl to death, but fuck her. Girls make the mistake of letting their friends in on their love life all the time but don't be one of them! This ball— it's just between you and Viktor and no one else."

"Right." I repeated. "Me and Viktor and no one else."

_Fin_

AN: Okay so the response to the last chapter was a bit on the tepid side but no one seemed to have any negative feedback. What did you lot think of Viktor? I know he's a little bit far from what he was in the book and the movie but you really can't have a main character that's devoid of humor or can't say what he wants to (or at least I can't write that). The ball is in the next chapter so that's cool. Anyway please review! It would be so cool if I could get up to 40 by the next chapter. Speaking of the next chapter here's a sneak peak!

_I found Fred and George's present in the little pile at the bottom of my bed easily. I'd expected cooking supplies but there was no such thing. It was, I could tell just from looking at it, a sack-o-dungbombs from Zonko's because instead of putting it a box or even just putting a bow on it, they'd tried to wrap it conventionally. There were little bits of the sack poking out at all ends and the paper was held together with spellotape. Boys, I thought, rolling my eyes. I didn't even bother trying to lug the bloody thing downstairs, I just shoved it under my bed before anyone else noticed it and decided to tell the faculty that I had about fifty pounds of dungbombs under my bed. _

_"Did you like our gift?" Fred asked when I came back down to the common room. _

_"Oh yeah." I laughed. "It's great. Very me." _

_"You'll need them someday." George assured me._


	5. Chapter 5

_Scarlet Scarves_

Chapter 5— To Women

It was so strange to see Viktor the next morning at breakfast. I didn't know how to behave: should I wave or talk to him? He obviously didn't care to keep our relationship a secret as we were going to the ball but a public display seemed awkward. Fortunately Viktor seemed to know what he was doing (or maybe vhat he was doing). He caught my eye as the Durmstrang pupils entered and gave me a very short but intense smile.

When I left the hall he did to and once out in the entrance hall grabbed my hand and pulled me out the front doors. "Come vith me." He said determinedly.

"Where are we going?" I asked. "I've got to be back by eleven. Amanda and I are going to get dress robes today in Hogsmead."

We sat on a rock by the lake and for a moment the two of us were silent. I shivered a little bit. The first snow had come three days before and I was only wearing a light sweater. "Are you cold?" Viktor asked.

"No." I lied.

But like a true gentlemen he didn't pay any attention to me. He shrugged off his heavy coat and threw it around my shoulders. It was ridiculously big on me. "You are very cute in there." He said, smirking at me and pulling up the collar so my face was protected from the wind but almost gone in the fleecy lining.

I pushed the sleeves back so my hands were a little free. "Aren't you going to be cold?" I asked. Without his coat he had on only a simple T-shirt.

He looked around, as if just noticing the snow. "This is very varm veather where I come from." He said, breathing out misty little particles with his words. "I vas actually thinking of swimming later today."

I gaped at him. "You're making it up you show off!" I accused.

He shook his head. "It is the truth. I promise."

I looked at the lake. Among the little pebbles on the beach a little film of ice was forming. I looked back at him and cocked my eyebrow, challenging him to stick to that story. "Come with then," he said, "if you don't believe me!"

"I can't. As much as I'd love to watch you jump into the blood lake at this time of year, " I said, "I have to go get dress robes with Amanda." I checked my watch. "And I'd better bloody well get going if I expect to make it onto the train to Hogsmead."

I stood to go, shrugging off his coat and handing it back to him, but he caught my hand and stood. His lips were so close to mine that my cold nose started to sting a little from the heat of our mingling breath. "We shouldn't." I said, feeling somewhat detached from my body and surprised that words came out so rational. "I can see my dormitory window from here."

"She is going to find out in a few days anyway Tenn-ssee." He whispered back

I gave him a very brief kiss and when he released my hand to cup my chin, pulled my lips back reluctantly. "But not yet." I said and then turned to dart back up toward the castle.

He laughed but called after me. "I did not tell you something yesterday."

"What?" I asked, turning to face him but calling across the distance I'd covered instead of coming back.

"The champions…vell ve have to start the dancing." He explained.

"What does that even mean?" I asked.

He grinned. "I am not sure I know."

I shrugged. "All right then." And I turned and ran back up to the castle.

The first hour Amanda and I looked in the robe shop was fun. The next was tedious but not too bad. By the fourth, I felt like maybe her promise to find me the prettiest robes had been a sentence or a threat.

Amanda, eventually, settled on a very pale pink set or robes with elegant lace trimming and an old-fashioned cut. The skirt whispered romantically when she moved and swirled when she twirled. It was the perfect dress for her—a mix of glamour and romance without being stuffy.

My robes were a floaty pale purple with details of darker purples on the skirt's edge and along the collar. The skirt wasn't long like Amanda's but neither was it tastelessly short. Maybe it was a conservative choice but it felt comfortable and it made my legs look about a million miles long.

We found shoes eventually too (white stilettos for Amanda and low-heeled velvet ones for me that we had spelled to match the color of my dress) and then met up with Jack at the Three Broomsticks. "The shopping was a success I take it?" He commented, eyeing our packages. "What kind of dress did you girls get?"

She shook her head. "We can't tell you! You have to wait and see at the ball silly!" I shrugged at Jack as if to say, well I would have told you. "I wouldn't ask to see your dress robes would I?" She said.

He shrugged. "Well I'd show you if you ever did." He said, honestly.

It was fun to just sit there and talk with them. Jack said that most of the Beauxbatons kids had gotten dates to the ball. That didn't surprise me, French accents are very sexy and hip in Britain. He also said that a couple of the other boys from his school had been thinking of asking Amanda but he'd intimidated them out of it. Whether that was true or not it had the desired effect: Amanda squealed and scooted closer to him on the booth seat and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"So who is taking you Tennessee?" Jack asked.

I shrugged. "You'll see then."

He laughed. "Oh a secret is it? It isn't Roger is it?" He tried to sound neutral, on the off chance it was Roger, but his nose wrinkled involuntarily.

"No." I said. "It isn't Roger."

"Like she'd go with that bastard." Amanda said dismissively. I've never been sure if Amanda knows that I have a crush on Roger. She has intuition to spare so it wouldn't surprise me but she never acts as if she does. Jack on the other hand obviously must have guessed somehow. Jack shot me a questioning look that I pointedly dodged by becoming fascinated with the grain of the tabletop.

8888

I woke up Christmas morning and realized, almost before I opened my eyes, that it was barely light out and I could quite clearly hear the crowded chatter going in the common room. We'd forgotten to close the dormitory door the night before. After about half an hour of angrily trying to tell myself that I was just on the edge of going back to sleep I sat up and rubbed my eyes sleepily. The rest of my dormitory was slumbering soundly.

I tiptoed quietly and quickly to the door and shut it, blocking out the sound. Lana rolled over in her sleep but no one woke up. I got out my bathrobe and went to sit on the window seat, opening the frosted pane so I could see out it. Snow had fallen in the night and the scene still had the magic of untouched snow to it. I stuck my head out the window and gulped air for a minute or two until the complaints of my nose and ears forced me to retreat.

When I was done moping I trudged down to the common room to say hello to Fred, George and Lee (I had clearly heard their voices in the din earlier). It was much more crowded than I'd expected. Not at maximum capacity exactly but the good seats by the fire were all filled and there was the buzz of conversation. I'd stayed at Hogwarts once before over the Christmas holidays, when my mum had been going through a rough time after my grandmum died, but the common room had been nearly deserted. Lana had stayed too in solidarity and we'd amused ourselves by pushing the beds against the wall and then sliding in our socked feet in the empty dormitory.

I found my three friends huddled around a table off to the side. Fred, George and Lee were in matching sweaters and looking ridiculous in magical headset style walkie-talkies I'd bought them. "What time is it?" I asked.

"A little before eight." George said, checking his watch. "Is that right Fred?" He radioed to his twin, who was literally right next to him.

"Confirmed George." Fred radioed back. I rolled my eyes. I should have known better than to get them those.

"What did you get for Christmas?" Lee asked, pushing up the little mouth mike to talk to me.

I shrugged. "Dunno yet, haven't looked."

"Why the devil not?" Fred asked, gazing at me with confused eyes.

I shrugged again. "I didn't wake anybody up." I said. "My dormitory is all still asleep."

"Well go get our gift!" Fred commanded, shushing me back toward the stairs with his hands.

"Yeah." George said. "You're going to love it!"

Creeping back into my dormitory I tiptoed to my bed and was just going to search for Fred and George's gift in the pile at the base when I heard a rustling noise above me. I looked up and found that there was an owl waiting for me, perched on the top of my footboard. It must have gotten in when I'd opened the window.

I accepted its letter and ripped it open. It read simply:

**Tennessee,**

**Merry Christmas**

Viktor 

But there was something else in the package too. I tipped the envelope sideways and shook it so the little thing slid out onto my palm. For a second I thought it was a gold coin but then I saw the little loop at the end and the chain trailing for it. It was a medallion about the size of a pound coin with the figure of a roaring lion engraved on one side and an odd word I couldn't quite get my tongue around on the other.

"Wait!" I hissed to the owl that was hopping toward the window. "I've got a return gift."

What to give Viktor had been a huge dilemma for me. About the only thing I knew about him was that he played Quidditch. I didn't know how serious our relationship was so I didn't want to get something too romantic. He wasn't muggle born so I couldn't get him a DVD or CD or the like. It wasn't the sixties, so I couldn't get him an ID bracelet. He wasn't English so I couldn't get him a book (even from the wizard world) and to make things worse, I'd had to think about it with Amanda making ridiculous suggestions like designer jumpers and silk boxers in my ear.

I'd ended up getting his gift at the same magical toyshop that I'd picked up Fred, George and Lee's goofy headsets. It was a remote control broom, the magical equivalent of a remote control car. And, as an added joke, I'd baked him a big pan of brownies that (hopefully) Fred and George hadn't hexed. The owl gave me what I think was an incredulous look when I gave him the box that held the remote broom (it was rather big) and then piled the batch of brownies on top.

I found Fred and George's present in the little pile at the bottom of my bed easily. I'd expected cooking supplies but there was no such thing. It was, I could tell just from looking at it, a sack-o-dungbombs from Zonko's because instead of putting it a box or even just putting a bow on it, they'd tried to wrap it conventionally. There were little bits of the sack poking out at all ends and the paper was held together with spellotape. _Boys_, I thought, rolling my eyes. I didn't even bother trying to lug the bloody thing downstairs, I just shoved it under my bed before anyone else noticed it and decided to tell the faculty that I had about fifty pounds of dungbombs under my bed.

"Did you like our gift?" Fred asked when I came back down.

"Oh yeah." I laughed. "It's great. Very me."

"You'll need them someday." George assured me.

I spent the day with Fred, George and Lee. We were just starting a snowball fight about five o'clock for female time. "What the hell could take three hours?" Lee asked as we trotted up the stairs.

Amanda, who always knows what to say to things like that, turned and gave him a wide, wicked smile. "You don't even want to know." Mostly it was boring stuff though. What took the longest was letting my hair dry in the curlers we put it into.

I unwrapped my presents while we did this. Mom had sent me a day planner and a stylish winter coat with creamy fleece lining. Dad had sent me a fifty pound note and a very nondescript Christmas card. My sister Lydia had sent me the kind of high-heeled shoes that only New York women like her wear on normal days. I opened Amanda's present and blinked. I stuffed it back into the wrapping paper, where the girls sprawled over every surface in the dormitory couldn't see it.

I rushed into the bathroom where she was waxing some girl's underarms. "What is this?" I asked, pulling her to one side and pulling back the wrapping paper so she could see what she'd got me.

She giggled. "It's for tonight silly!" She said.

I was appalled. "Amanda! I've only just met the guy! What kind of date do you think this is?"

Inside the package was a box from Kirke's, the Victoria's Secret of the magical world. Inside that box was a pale pink and very lacy bra, matching underwear and a garter belt with matching sheer stockings. She giggled. "It's has nothing to do with Viktor." She said. I gave her a hard looking and motioned for her not to say his name in public but she continued. "It doesn't have his name on it does it?"

I thrust the box under her nose. "This is not innocent lingerie!" I hissed. "This is very, very guilty lingerie!"

She shrugged. "Maybe. That really depends on what you do with it, doesn't it? I'm not saying it doesn't have the potential to be guilty, or even that you shouldn't let it be guilty if that's how you feel. But you'd be surprised what attractive underwear will do for your self-confidence. Even if no one else knows what you've got on, you do and it'll show too."

I went back to my bedside and the book lying on my bedside but my thoughts seemed to turn inevitably to what Amanda had said like they'd been magnetized. I've never been comfortable changing in public (I'm the kind of girl who waits until the bathroom is free to change out of my pajamas) but I found my fingers twitching toward the belt on my bathrobe.

I stripped it off and slipped into the bra and panties. It looked so nice with my pale skin that I tried on the garter belt and stockings. My skin was glowing in the light from the setting sun that was framed in our window and even with my hair in curlers I looked somehow more elegant. I felt, for the first time, that I could see what Viktor was doing when he asked me to the ball.

When my hair had dried Amanda took out the curlers and we did our makeup and slipped into our dresses. We sat on my bed and tried not to muss our dresses. "I'm glad you're my friend Amanda." I said as we slipped into our shoes. "Fred, George and Lee are great but you're always my girly friend."

"Always." She promised.

We left early. Somewhere in the mass conscious it had been decided that the Hogwarts girl who were going with boys from Durmstrang or Beauxbatons would walk out to the ship or carriage so that they could ender with their dates. I put my mom's jacket over my dress and Amanda and I cast warmth and water-repelling spells on our shoes even though the paths to had been well cleared.

The night air was brutally cold but almost eerily still and though the frost was thick on the ground the night was clear enough to see the stars. "I'll see you in a bit." Amanda said when we reached the point where our paths in the snow parted.

The walk down to the lake was solitary but I was excited enough to be numb to the cold and the silence. A few girls were already on the dock waiting for the charmed boat to arrive. I recognized a girl I knew from Ravenclaw and we gravitated together. "Who are you going with?" She asked.

"Viktor Krum." I said flatly. There was no use trying to make the secret last anymore, she'd find out in a few minutes anyway.

"You're kidding." She gapped.

"No." I said. "Who are you going with?"

"Vlad Polkaff." She said.

The ship was buzzing with the same energy Hogwarts was, I could see that the second I got off the boat. Everyone was looking hopeful and nervous and excited all at once. Viktor helped me off the boat onto the ship. "You are very beautiful." He whispered to me.

I blushed. "Thanks. You look nice too." All the Durmstrang students were dressed alike—dark pants and shirts with rich red capes over one shoulder. If I'd seen it on a mannequin in a store I would have surely laughed but it looked well on Viktor. He had just the right kind of stoicism and imposing confidence to wear it. He looked downright regal with his head high.

He touched the necklace that was resting in the little dimple at the top of my breastbone. "Do you like it?" He asked.

I nodded.

"I'd hoped you vould." I asked him what he thought of my gift but he laughed and said he'd have to let me know later because all the boys on the ship had been playing with it all morning and he hadn't gotten a chance yet. He introduced me to all his friends but the names were so long, so foreign and there were so many of them I didn't catch a single one.

Someone brought out a bottle of vodka and poured shots all around. "Is this even legal?" I asked as I took my own miniature glass.

Viktor shrugged. "It vould be in Bulgaria." Which was a non-answer if ever I heard one.

One of Viktor's friends climbed up onto the edge of the ship, raised his glass and shouted something in Bulgarian. It was obviously a toast of some kind because Viktor and the men aboard roared their approval and slammed back their shots. It was a magical moment, that roar of companionship into the night that bounced over the dark waters we floated on. I shuddered and wished, suddenly, that I wasn't an outsider here as I hurried to catch up. "What did he say?" I choked out, when my eyes had stopped watering and my throat had opened up again.

He shook his head. "You vould not like it." He said.

"Come on." I cajoled. "Tell me."

"Okay." He said. "It is hard to say in English but it means something like 'here is to vomen because they are the only thing vorse for a man than vodka.'"

I giggled. "It doesn't either!"

"It does." He confirmed. "It's a very traditional toast in Bulgaria."

I was just trying to think of a suitable comeback when Karkaroff came up on deck. It quieted down quickly but Viktor must have been telling the truth about the drinking age in Bulgaria because no one thought to try to hide the bottle or the glasses.

He scouted the ship and seeing us, came over to where we were standing. The surly Krum from the World Cup and the library fell instantly back over his features. I'd almost forgotten about his duality in his personality—I was almost as surprised to see it back as I had been when I'd first seen him smile. I shifted nervously back and forth in my heels, wishing Karkaroff would shove off.

It occurred to me, as they spoke rapid fire back and forth, that it was both a little sexy and a little scary to depend so fully on Viktor in this way. It bound me to him in ways I couldn't even fathom somehow. I could hear my name in their conversation (sticking out in the throaty sound of the language like a sore thumb) occasionally so I knew that I was at least peripherally to do with what they were talking about it. Also from the way he was glancing at me I could tell Karkaroff liked muggle-borns about as much as he liked Hogwart's students and it wasn't exactly reassuring the way Viktor kept a tight grip on my hand the whole conversation.

"What was that about?" I asked as we walked back up toward the castle.

He shook his head. "Nothing to do with you." An obvious lie, even to me but I didn't see what I could get from pushing the subject further.

In the entrance hall everything and everyone had a sort of sheen over them. It seemed to me that everyone had thought to wear their best underwear at the same time. Girls who usually kept their eyes on the floor were beaming and waving at everyone around them like they were Hollywood A-listers. Boys who were usually too shy to talk to girls were chatting animatedly with their dates.

From across the hall I could almost feel Lana's eyes burning me. I shot her one long look with which I tried to convey all the regret, hope and guilt I felt about everything that had passed between us but it all burned up in the heat of her glare.

"Champions over here please!" Professor McGonagall called across the hall and I was glad to move to the corner of the hall because people were beginning to stare at me in a way that was somehow less than flattering.

I realized, as we all coalesced, that I had no idea who was going with the other champions. Harry Potter had taken a very pretty fourth year who I'd seen in Gryffindor tower but whose name I didn't know. Cho Chang was happily leaning into Cedric's arms. Next my eyes fell to the boy with Fleur as my mouth fell open. It was Roger. And he was looking at his date (who was swaddled in painfully beautiful silver robes) as if he hadn't a thought in his head except how stunning she was.

"That is vhat the toast was meant." Krum whispered to me, looking too at Fleur and Roger.

I felt as I had when I'd downed that shot too: like I'd been hit in the face with a lead pipe and then made to sniff smelling salts. I laughed but all my thoughts had run to my heart and turned into jealousy and anger so it seemed to ring hollow.

My first reaction to seeing Roger behaving so disgustingly with Fleur was as cliché as it was stupid—to do the same with Viktor. Luckily my higher reasoning function kicked in just time and I realized that on the off chance that Roger even noticed me it was very, very, very unlikely to have the desired effect. If he didn't see right through what I was trying to do at first glance he was hardly likely to become jealous when he had a girl like Fleur.

And then Professor McGonagall was arranging us into a line of pairs and the doors were opening onto the Great Hall. It looked as it never had before. The first thing I noticed was that the long house tables were gone and had been replaced by a smattering of smaller circular tables. The walls were hung heavy with icicles and wreaths of holly and Christmas decorations. But then we moved into the actual hall and I felt as if I were going to be crushed under the pressure of the eyes on me. I'd thought the entrance hall had been rough but it was nothing compared to this. I had sympathized with Viktor's discomfort with attention before—now I could empathize too.

Professor McGonagall lead us to a larger circular table at the top of the hall and seated with the judges. On the plus side, Viktor chose seats that were about as far from Karkaroff as was possible but on the minus side they were dreadfully close to Fleur and Roger.

To the right of me the under deputy who had come in place of Mr. Crouch chatted to Harry (who looked bored). Potter was in Gryffindor with me but he was two years below me and I barely knew him. Like I said before, the days of You-Know-Who had the feel of long-past history to me and I can't help feeling sometimes that I don't fully appreciate Harry. I know for sure that I wasn't nearly as impressed with him as both Lana and Amanda were when he came to Hogwarts in our second year. I hadn't ever really talked to him. "Hey Harry." I called to him.

He jerked to look at him. For a second I thought he didn't recognize me but then he smiled. "What's up Tennessee?" He asked.

"I forgot to tell you but good job on the first task." I said.

He nodded. "Cheers."

On the other side of me Fleur and Roger chattered inanely. Listening to them I could see exactly what Krum meant. Fuck alcohol, Fleur was deadlier than cyanide.

"What about me?" I said suddenly to Krum.

"Vhat about you?" Krum asked, looking at me curiously.

"I mean does the toast apply to me?" I asked. "Do you think I'm more dangerous than liquor?"

"Of course not. You are very nice." He said. He meant to be kind but it wasn't the answer I wanted to hear. As stupid as it was I wanted him to say that I was like Fleur, so beautiful it was terrible. I knew I was the safe, take-home-to-your-mother type but even nice girls like me dream of men driven wild by their beauty. It isn't that I'm unaware that it's not a nice fantasy but I can't help it.

Viktor and I chatted then about Durmstrang. It all sounded dreadful to me but I'm sure that it had mostly to do with the biases of the teller. The only romance in the whole descriptions, the only time he sounded genuinely happy, lay in the surrounding countryside, which I thought sounded magnificent. Eventually though, Karkaroff hinted that Viktor shouldn't tell me anymore about the school, so we talked my childhood as a muggle (actually I let him sidetrack me into a half hour explanation of the rules of football).

When we'd all finished our dinner, we stood and Dumbledore made all the tables whiz back against the wall to clear the flood for dancing. Then he conjured a stage along the right wall and a hodge-podge of instruments for the Weird Sisters, who marched out onto the stage to thunderous applause.

The lights dimmed and my stomach rocked pleasantly as I realized that the dancing was going to begin. Viktor was a good dancer. He isn't graceful on the ground but grace, as Amanda says, is not the man's business in a dance; but Viktor knew how to lead. I remember being vaguely surprised by how good he actually was but thinking back on, how else could I have expected it? Dancing, like most things, is a matter of perseverance when you first learn it, and Viktor, unlike me, had that in spades.

It was scary at first, the two of us seemed to be completely isolated in the little light that was left in the room, but eventually the other pupils began to move out onto the dance floor and then it was quite fun. The first dance was formal but there were modern ones later. Three pairs of the champions stayed on the dance floor but Harry, and his date, returned to a table they shared with a ginger-haired boy and a pretty girl in blue robes, who had the unmistakable look of the newly in love.

We danced until our feet hurt and then went and sat at the tables, drinking until we were refreshed and then returning to the floor. Fred and Angelina sat with us for a while, and while Angelina and Viktor argued over something to do with Quidditch Fred and I talked. "Why didn't you tell me you were going with Krum?" He whispered to me.

I giggled, pleased by how disgruntled he looked. "You didn't ask Fred."

He gave me a very queer look. "You never fail to surprise." He said. It was cryptic, to say the least, but I was flattered anyway. No one had ever accused me of being interesting, much less surprising and it sounded glamorous to me.

"Does it ever get boring?" I asked him, when it was just the two of us again. "People wanting to talk to you only about Quidditch I mean?"

"You don't talk to me about Quidditch." He pointed out.

I shrugged. "I might if I hadn't already embarrassed myself in that department with the Ponski Feint." I said honestly.

He considered. "No," he said finally, "I love Quidditch so it is never a bother to talk about it." He smiled. "Especially if it is to a beautiful woman."

Determined not to rise to the bait, I smiled my most even smile. "No kidding." I said casually, looking over at where Angelina was dancing with Fred. Her long black hair hung over her beautiful curves like a cape. "But I think Angelina might be quite dedicated to Fred. Heaven only knows why but that's just the sense I get."

He laughed at me for almost a minute. "I vas talking about you." He said.

"Oh." I said, blushing.

Amanda and Jack came to talk to us as well. Jack merely raised his eyebrows at me and I winked back, grinning. I laughed as Amanda asked Viktor what she'd missed when she'd been too sick to see the World Cup. Even Amanda, who knew less about Quidditch than I did couldn't think of anything else to talk to him about.

"So," Jack said conversationally, "Lana doesn't look too happy."

From across the room I could see Lana sitting at a table against the wall. She was with a group of girls who hadn't got dates (though I knew for a fact that two boys had asked her). Her dress was the same rich burgundy as the Durmstrang capes and the high, irritated color in her cheeks when she looked our way. Cerebrally I felt bad but there was so much adrenaline and joy in my bloodstream there was no room for anything else.

"Guess so." I said stubbornly. I didn't want to talk about Lana, it only made me grumpy, and tonight I was interested only in the lighter end of the spectrum of emotion. "Let's get out of here." I said to Viktor, pulling on his arm.

He yielded easily and we walked out through the entrance hall to the magical garden that had been created off to the west. We walked out into the semi-darkness until we found a little cove with a stone bench. I sat down while Viktor stood and looked down to where we could see the ship portholes glowing. We sat in silence for a few minutes, just enjoying the funny still texture of the evening. I could see behind him two shapes in another of the side enclosures but the two of them were so close I could barely tell where one ended and one began. I thought it was funny until I recognized one of the moaning voices. It was Roger and Fleur!

I was suddenly nauseous. "Let's move a little farther along." I started to say but Viktor seemed to stiffen suddenly and he grabbed my arm and thrust me behind a higher hedge so the two us were concealed to any passers by. "What…" I started but he clamped a hand over my mouth.

In the sudden silence I could hear what he had picked up on, voices on the path. "You must be noticing it too Severus." It was the horse, wan voice of Karkaroff only a few feet away. Viktor's hand, the one not over my lips, had settled by his side and I could see him ball it into a fist. He looked, suddenly and genuinely angry.

"Of course I noticed it you damned idiot." That was the lazy tone of Snape.

I put my hand on Viktor's arm, trying to reassure him through touch somehow. I was surprised to find, for the first time in the bitterly cold night, he was shivering. He drew his hand down from my lips and my breath fogged in the air. It was a strange moment, our eyes and lips only inches apart, so close the misty fog of our breaths mingled, but being so unaware of each other. Our beings had moved out of our bodies toward the path a few feet away to eavesdrop on our professors.

"Well then you must know he's coming back!" Karkaroff seemed panicked.

"Nothing is confirmed yet!" Snape snapped. "This has happened before. When he has regained some of his powers."

"But never so strongly!"

They moved out of our hearing range. Viktor grabbed my hand and pulled me back out onto the path again but we ran the opposite direction that they had been heading—right toward Fleur and Roger. There was a shout behind us and I turned my head in time to see Snape shout at two kids who hadn't been as lucky as Viktor and me and had been caught by the two men. "What was that about?" I panted to Krum when we slowed to a walk around the next bend in the hedges.

"I am not sure." He said, but he looked like he had a pretty good idea.

We took an indirect route back to the dance hall but we went as quickly as we could. It seemed, suddenly, like a bad idea to be out in the cold and dark. And yet, for all it was creepy outside it was almost completely forgotten in the warmth. We danced and got warm again and, before I knew it, the band was announcing the last dance.

"Vhen vill I see you again?" Viktor asked me in the entrance hall.

I kissed his cheek. "Tomorrow?" I proposed. "On the Pitch?"

"After breakfast?" He said.

And then we parted.

_Fin _

AN: Sooooooo what do you think? Too cheesy? Too dramatic? Not dramatic enough? Did you think Krum and Tennessee just jumped right too it too quickly? Were all the characters true to themselves? Please drop me a line and tell me what you thought of this chapter! So I haven't even started the next chapter (uh oh) so there's no preview this time. Sorry. Oh and be sure to have a Merry Christmas or whatever you celebrate this season!


	6. Chapter 6

_Scarlet Scarves_

Chapter 6—The Second Task

I was late meeting Viktor the next morning. I had told him ten, figuring that would allow plenty of time for the other girls to clear out of the room to get breakfast but everyone had stayed up late the night before and so it was almost ten thirty before the last one left and I could get up from my feigned sleep. I dressed quickly but warmly.

I had fallen asleep with the new boyfriend feeling but when I woke I felt only empty. It might have been just the fact that I was very hungry but I don't think so. My curls, which had been so perfect the night before, were all mashed down from the night of sleep. That's how I felt I guess, like a perfect hairdo that's been carelessly slept on. I had dreamed that night of fun times with Lana. I had heard them talking that morning while they though I was asleep.

"I cannot believe Viktor picked her! She's a certifiable freak."

"I can't believe he has that bad taste!"

"Well you can't have everything! He had to have a flaw."

"Oh shut up you lot! I know you guys are jealous but isn't it about time to give up this whole Viktor nonsense. I mean Tennessee got the guy. That's the end so why don't we just drop it?"

That last one was Amanda.

"Oh honestly Amanda, I don't know why you still hang out with her. She's turned into such a self-righteous little freak." Painfully, that was Lana.

"Seriously."

I don't understand, honestly I don't, how girls like that can get along. It's such an irony that they're all competing against each other for something but yet that's what draws them into solidarity, while the girls like Amanda and I are the ostracized ones. Do they even think about what they're doing? I guess they've heard that cliché about keeping your enemy's closest. Too bad they didn't hear the first bit about keeping your friends close too.

But at any rate by about ten thirty they had all tramped out and so I was free to get up. I washed my face and threw on my winter clothes and a little make up and then ran downstairs. My stomach protested as I ran by the tempting smells wafting from the Great Hall but I didn't stop.

"You are late." Viktor said when I finally made it to the Pitch. He was sitting in the bleachers looking, if it was possible, even more tired than me. His eyes were sunken slightly, with purple bags beneath them, and his lips were tinged with green. Good thing I didn't pick him for his looks. He had a stack of French toast, thick with nuts and raisins, but he hadn't eaten any.

"Yeah, it was unavoidable." I said. "Listen, what the hell happened to you? Can I have a piece of your toast?"

He held out the stack. "They are for you."

"Cheers." The toast tasted strange in my mouth, which was somehow dry, but delicious. "But seriously, what happened?"

He rubbed his bloodshot eyes. "No one was ready to go to bed vhen ve vent back to the ship." He said.

I could guess what sort of end the Vodka had met.

I giggled. "Really? That's kind of funny."

"I am glad you are happy." He said dryly.

"That's really good Viktor." I applauded him. "That's called sarcasm. I bet it's hard to do in English."

"Vell I vanted to…how do you say it? I vanted to put my best foot forward this morning." I laughed even harder at that. Apparently hung-over Viktor is even funnier than regular Viktor.

I was almost through my second piece of toast and starting to feel full. "So…" I prompted. "What are you scared of?"

"Vhat?" He asked.

"You know it's a good second date question. What are you scared of?" I repeated. "Here I'll go first. I'm scared of scary movies, water I can't see the bottom of and cockroaches."

He considered for a second. "I am scared of tall buildings."

"What like they're going to fall on you?"

"No, vhen I look down off the top of them I feel like I vill fall."

"No way." I said firmly. "You are in no way scared of heights. I've seen you fly, you're fearless on a broom."

"It is not the same."

"It is too. Heights are heights."

"No it is not." He said very finally.

I shrugged. "Okay." I agreed but when we'd fallen silent I muttered, "if you want to be a big, fat wierdo."

He laughed at that, his first laugh that morning. "You are very funny Tennessee."

As we sat I thought about that night so many months ago at the Cup when I'd bought a poster of Krum. Lana had said that he looked cute and I'd just rolled my eyes. I wondered if Krum and I were really even supposed to be together. I mean first there was the fact that Lana, my best friend, who had taken me under her wing when everything in the magical world was new and scary, loved him. And then there was the fact that I myself was in love with Roger, Lana's brother and a jerk in the first degree.

I pushed those thoughts back. "What are you thinking about?" I asked him.

"I vas thinking about the Quiddtich World Cup." He said.

"Oh? What about it?"

"I vas just thinking that the first time you saw me I had just lost and had a broken nose." He said.

I giggled. "Well the first time you saw me my friends were making total asses of themselves."

He looked as if he might try to deny this but then burst out laughing, "that is true." He put his arm around and kissed me.

This, I thought, this is what the Triwizard Tournament is all about really. Before I met him I thought all Durmstrang kids were Dark Wizards in training, twisted and disturbed. I realize now that without thinking I just sort of assumed that they spent all their time thinking up torturous spells and I dunno, eating raw human flesh or something.

And now I knew better.

8888

January and February came and went in the mockery of normality we all came to accept. It was a bitter, uneasy and tacit truce (more like trench warfare than a proper truce) but the most that could be hoped for. Like me I think Lana didn't know how she wanted us to behave around each other. If she thought up something particularly cutting to say to me she would but other than that she didn't want any contact with me. Once, when I forgot for a second and called out to her when I saw her back in the hall she turned but, seeing who it was, froze for a second before just turning back around and acting like it never happened. Sometimes I thought about cornering her in the library and trying to make pax but I couldn't, not while I still had Viktor. I had won (I guess, it didn't feel much like a victory) and she would have been patronizing and snobby to ask for a renewal of our friendship. I've always suspected that she more than once talked to Viktor, either to chat him up or tell him nasty rumors about me, during those months, though he always denied it when I asked.

Fred, George and I made a few more products, but nothing that we felt were good enough to be released. The backstab brownies were put on the shelf because of a lack of funds (the quality of liquor required was very expensive). Fred and George were distant and secretive for the first week of January until they finally broke down and admitted that they were working on a new product: exploding quills. After that I was allowed in the room with them while they were working on it but was sworn the secrecy again and I was only allowed to get involved during the testing stages (not that much fun anyway).

For our part Viktor and I had a marvelous time. On Saturdays we went flying (actually I mostly sat in the stands and did my homework but it was still relaxing), or explored the castle, or read in the library or went out on the lake boating. His schoolmates were always polite to me, but there was an awkward tenseness to them, as if they were all veiling a very deep hatred of me. Once, when Viktor left me alone for a second a boy named Sobakov tugged my hair very had and muttered something I'm very sure was a very nasty curse in Bulgarian. And, after I didn't rat them out, they felt free to be very cruel to me whenever he was gone. Whatever animosity they held though was always carefully concealed the second Viktor returned. I didn't mind the pinching and the nasty words as much as the fact that no one ever spoke English when I was around. I knew that they all could but it was the biggest sign of disrespect they felt they could get away with.

And still February marched on.

I asked Viktor once if he'd managed to understand the egg's meaning but he just pressed his lips together. "We should not talk about that." He said.

"Why?" I asked, my interest peaked.

"You go to Hogwarts. I am the Durmstrang Champion."

"Okay." I said. "I guess it's not really any of my business anyway." But it turned out to have more to do with me than either of us could have ever imagined.

8888

I was in the library when Dumbledoor came for me. I was pretending to do my Charms homework while Viktor and I flirted, knocked feet under the table, and every once in a while dissolved into kissing. Fred and George were there too but they weren't paying much attention to us—they were on the fruitless quest to make Polyjuice Potion tasty.

"Hello Miss Scarlet." He said. "Mr. Krum, Mr. Weasley and Mr. Weasley." He nodded to Fred and George.

It was such a shock to see him there in the library, such an unexpected thing that we all just blinked vacantly at him for a few seconds. "Good evening Professor." Fred recovered first. "What can we do for you?" Under the table Viktor took his hand off my knee. Dumbledoor's arrival probably felt like my father had just showed up to him.

"Well I'm afraid to say that I need to see Miss Scarlet right away." I was as surprised as the twins to hear that this wasn't about them, though much less relieved.

"What did I do Professor?" I asked.

"Nothing my dear, just follow me." He waved me off.

Viktor's hand returned to my knee. "Vait Professor, I vould like to talk to Tennessee for a second."

Dumbledoor nodded. "If you like you can just walk her to my office. The password is Plum Drops Miss Scarlet." He turned to leave but then turned back. "Oh and could the two of you," he gestured to Fred and George, "locate Mr. Ron Weasley? We will be needing him to join us as well."

Viktor was silent as we walked down the corridors to the Headmaster's office, my footfalls numb on the stones. I was running over and over in my mind what I could have possibly done but could find nothing. It wasn't about Viktor was it? They couldn't tell me not to date him, could they? I wouldn't let them! It wasn't fair! International relations was what this tournament was about!

"What is this about Viktor?" I asked when we arrived at the doorstep and he still hadn't spoken.

He sat me down on the bottom of a statue of witch with a very dreamy expression: "Doris the Dazed" was the name inscribed on her pedestal. "I am not sure if I am meant to tell you Tennessee." He said slowly.

I blinked. "Why not?"

"Vell I am not sure I am right." He said but his voice trailed off as if he had another reason too.

I waited for him to explain.

He waved me off. "I can not talk to you about this." He said firmly. "But remember this. If you do not want to participate in the tournament, you do not have too. I read in a book the rules. Your name did not come out of the Goblet."

"What are you talking about Viktor?" I asked, bewildered.

"Just remember that." He said firmly, kissing me very hard, as if to press his point home. "You do not have to participate."

"Okay." I said. "I'll remember.

Inside the office were a few of the judges, Madame Maxime, Karkaroff, Cho Chang and a little girl of about eleven who was looking about as confused as I felt. I was seated on the couch next to the girl and Cho and offered a drink by a floating tray. Karkaroff glared at me. "What is this about?" I asked as politely as I could.

"I think we should wait until Mr. Weasley joins us. It will take less time if we only have to explain it once." Professor Dumbledoor said kindly.

Dumbledoor made a noble stab at sparking conversation in the room but we were all silent and stubborn. A few long minutes Ron came tramping up the stairs. When he had been seated on the couch Dumbledoor addressed us all. "Miss Delacour speaks no English but the rules have already been explained to her." The girl, I realized now was Fleur's sister. "On to business then. As some of you may or may not know," did I imagine it or did his eyes flick toward Ron? "the next phase of the Triwizard Tournament will take place in the lake. The golden egg the champions received has given them all the same clue that should have pointed them along the path to preparing for their task—rescuing you."

We all started slightly at that. Ron sat up a little bit and Cho and I exchanged glances. The younger Miss Delacour gazed at the rest of us, simply in awe. She looked as if she couldn't believe she was being allowed do this with the big kids. I knew how she was feeling, I used to feel it too when my older brother Darren used to bring his friends over. They seemed so glamorous and clever to me that I was completely star-struck. I gave her a small smile, which she returned. Whatever I felt for her sister I felt a tender protectiveness for her. "Sorry Professor?" Ron said.

"Hostages Mr. Weasley." Karkaroff said very huffily. "We have promised the Champions and you four," he let his poisoned gaze linger a little longer on me, "have been selected."

I glanced at the little girl, who couldn't have possibly been older than eight. "Hostages?" I said. "But…" I wanted to ask if that was fair, if it was legal, if it was sane but I couldn't get myself to quite say it. Not to Professor Dumbledoor.

"It is perfectly safe Miss Scarlet." Dumbledoor said, his eyes twinkling down at me. "I will put all four of you into an enchanted sleep and the Mermaids of the lake will take you down to their village and protect you until your champion comes to free you. If, for some reason, you Champion fails to arrive, they will bring you back to the surface just as good as new." Then he turned and repeated his explanation to Fleur's sister in French.

"Sirène? Vraiment?" She breathed.

"Oui." Dumbledoor assured her.

"Will we remember being in the lake?" Cho asked.

"No, you will be in a dreamless sleep for the duration." Dumbledoor said.

"But we don't have to do it right?" I said very pointedly. "I mean our names didn't come out of the Goblet so aren't bound to play."

"Of course not." Dumbledoor said.

"Does she know that?" I asked, pointing to Fleur's sister.

"She does." Dumbledoor said.

"Sirenes." Fleur's sister sighed again.

My mother insisted I learn at least rudimentary French in my school before Hogwarts so I knew what she was saying was "mermaids" and I smiled at that. I too was excited by the prospect of mermaids, even if I would have to sleep through them.

"So are all of you agreed to go into the lake?" Dumbledoor asked.

There were several glances cast between the three of us (Fleur's sister seemed to have already made up her mind). "Yeah, all right then." Ron said bravely.

"Me too." Cho said.

I had to think about it for a second. I didn't mean to be fussy of cowardly but I was thinking of what Viktor had said to me outside. What had he been trying to tell me? Had he not figured out how to get into the lake? And yet if I didn't go they would simply take on of his friends from Durmstrang. I would just have to trust him to find me. "I'll go too." I said firmly.

Dumbledoor conjured us a fine dinner of sandwiches, crisps, pumpkin juice and cake and we were left alone to eat it in his office. We ate with gusto, knowing it would be our last meal until the next day. Perhaps it was the odd, parental dynamic we all adopted toward Gabrielle, or the isolation from the rest of the school, or the promise imminent f adventure but Cho, Ron and I developed a strangely strong bond. Neither of them spoke any French so it was my job to tell Gabrielle (Fleur's sister) where the lavatory was and ask if she wanted another sandwich or more pumpkin juice. I was glad to note that both Cho and Ron felt much the same way toward her as I did, smiling and reassuring her as best they could. We were all nervous but we never talked about it. Even though she wouldn't have understood us it felt wrong to talk about it in front of her.

Cho and Ron talked a lot about Harry and Cedric and asked a lot about Viktor. I was disappointing on that subject though. They were only interested in him as a Quidditch player and I, knowing nothing about Quidditch, couldn't answer half their questions. "I'll ask him." I kept saying.

When we had eaten our fill Dumbledoor returned to collect us. The chatter that had flowed all through dinner was suddenly dry. We walked down to the banks of the lake in silence. Out on the lake the Durmstrang ship was alight. I knew it would be impossible for him to see me from this distance in the dark but I looked out at it anyway. "I hope this is what you wanted." I said to the lake.

The merpeople met us on the west bank. They were not at all how I expected. They had gray skin and long, wild, green hair. Their faces were ugly but joyful as they waved at us and screeched at Professor Dumbledoor. Around their necks they were broken necklaces of pebbles and bones. Gabrielle pressed herself against my leg in fear. I was just trying to phrase in my mind the sentence, "you can still go back," in French when one of the younger mermaids, who looked to be almost Gabrielle's own age, swam forward and raised her webbed, scaly hand to Gabrielle. In it she was offering a necklace much like her own. She screeched two words.

Gabrielle went and sat on the bank with her, letting the mermaid splash her and show her tricks. "I think one of us should go first." I said to Cho and Ron. "Just so Gabrielle can see she won't be alone."

"And then she should go next." Cho agreed. "So she won't be alone when she goes."

"I'll go first." Ron offered bravely.

Dumbledoor came back to where he had been conversing with what seemed to be the chief merperson. He called Gabrielle back from her new friend. "Who wants to be first?" He asked.

Ron seemed to just go limp the second Dumbledoor muttered his incantation. Cho and I lunged for him and caught him before he fell flat on his back in the mud of the bank. We lugged him to the bank and let him down to the gray hands reaching up for him. Two mermen took Ron by the arm and dived, disappearing down into the inky darkness of the lake. I shivered. It was an eerie sight.

Next Gabrielle went, her blond hair fanning out for just a second before she was pulled below and then Cho next, slipping down and down into the unknown. "See you in a bit." She said, smiling at me. She didn't seem afraid at all. By this time my heart was pounding very hard and I was almost quaking with fear.

"Are you ready Miss Scarlet?" Dumbledoor asked.

"Yes sir." I nodded.

Insane things were coming across my mind. I was glad that I hadn't worn a beloved shirt that day. I was wondering if George and Fred would remember to take my book bag, which I had left in the library, with them when they returned to the dormitory. I was guilty for feeling so much fear but what was mostly on my mind was what Lana would think of my being picked as Viktor's hostage. It was a romantic thing—to be rescued from the lake from him. It was an honor—to participate in the Triwizard Tournament. It was a new level or our relationship —to be selected as the one thing at Hogwarts to be his hostage. Would she even worry for me? Were we so far gone?

"You know Miss Scarlet that standing up to your friends is a far nobler thing than standing up to your enemies." Dumbledoor said. "And you should be commended for it."

And then he must have said the spell because I remembered nothing else.

8888

I was only fifteen when my wisdom teeth came in. It was summer too and I didn't know how to get in touch with a magical doctor so my mother and father took me to my long forgotten dentist. I remember him saying that he was going to put me under, and I remember breathing in the gas but the next thing I remember was being in the car. It wasn't exactly like waking up, because I hadn't exactly been asleep. The only way I can describe it is this: it was like I had been standing on a train platform with the train rushing by me and then suddenly my sleeve had caught on the side and I was jerked along with it. I had existed for those hours but I hadn't had any thoughts.

That is how it felt to wake up in the lake.

The lake water was icy cold and I could feel it like little pin pricks all up and down my legs, which felt weighted in my jeans. I couldn't feel my feet at all, which were numb in my sodden shoes. My shirt had floated up and around my waist was Viktor's arm, which was rough and strong and unbelievably warm in the cold water was keeping me afloat. Amanda would later tell me that Viktor had used partial transformation to breath underwater but by the time I came too his head was returned to normal (good thing too because I would have flipped out if I woke up with a shark in the water).

He looked so handsome and determined with his short hair beaded with water. My body was pressed full flush against him. "Are you okay?" He asked hurriedly. He was brushing my hair out of my face, eager to see that I was okay.

I kissed him softly and slowly and he kissed back. I opened my mouth slightly and he did the same as one hand squeezed my side. It wasn't a passionate kiss but slower, sweeter. I broke apart and realized, for the first time, that everyone in the stands was watching us. And that a huge cheer had gone up. I shook the water from my ears and the sound magnified. I blushed very hard but Viktor simply smirked.

I was still sluggish from the hours in the spell but Viktor kept me afloat until we made it to the bank. He climbed out and then jerked me out of the water by my hand. My waterlogged clothes, which had been baggy in the water, were suddenly clingy and sagging under the weight of the water. He put his arm back around me and kissed me again but Madame Pomfrey swooped in and separated us. She wrapped us both in blankets and sat us down in a little tent on the side and poured up cups of steaming liquid.

"Where are Harry, Cedric and Fleur?" I asked him.

"I do not know." He said.

He was obviously more interested in me than anyone else who may or may not have come out of the lake but I stood up and walked back out of the tent. A little bit down the bank I saw Cho and Cedric, who were snuggled together, and Fleur was also back but Gabrielle was no where to be seen. Roger was with her and looking bored and mad as she sobbed into her hands. Her silver bathing suit was ripped off of one shoulder and she had scratches on her magnificent legs.

She looked so young, so helpless and so like her sister that my heart went out to her. I ran up the bank to her and tapped her on the shoulder. She had given me such a dismissive look the first time she'd seen me but that day there was only hope and despair in her eyes. "Fleur," I said, "Gabrielle will be perfectly fine. The merpeople will bring her up when the last champion come us."

"'Ow do you know?" She asked.

"They told us last night. They never would have let Gabrielle get into that lake if she had been in any danger." I told her firmly. "In a few seconds Harry will come back with Ron and then the merpeople will bring her up."

She flung her arms around my neck. She wept. "Do you really think so?"

I patted her back gently. Two months ago she had been the woman I most hated but that day she was just a girl in distress. She had tossed away the blanket Madame Pomfrey had given her and she her knees were muddy from sitting on the bank but she hadn't noticed. "She will be so happy to see you." I told her. "She said she was so proud of you for competing." It was nonsense that I made up, my French was nowhere near that good, but it didn't seem to matter to her.

"She did?" Fleur asked.

I nodded. "Of course. Who wouldn't be proud to have you as a sister?"

I gave her a couple of sips from my cup of pepper up potion and she stopped crying. Her eyes were still red and her hair was still wild but she was calm. "The merpeople seemed very friendly." Viktor said. He had followed me out of the tent apparently. Later he would tell me that this was a very big lie, that he had been very glad to have a shark's head when he approached them, but like I said, it didn't really matter.

"You saw her? Was she all right?" Fleur asked him.

"She was vith Tennessee and the others." Viktor said. "She vas good."

Over her shoulder Roger winked at me and rubbed her shoulder. Now that she wasn't tossing her hair around and flirting he was about as interested in Fleur as she was in him. And so he had turned to another diversion—tormenting me. Once we had talked Fleur into going back to the medical tent and letting Madame Pomfrey give her a blanket and some pepper up potion of her own (she had finished mine), Roger pulled me aside into one of the chambers of the tent.

"You never cease to amaze me Tennessee." He said. He stood in my sphere of personal space, looming a good half-foot over me.

"That doesn't amaze me." I said snottily. I was mad at him for being so insensitive about Fleur. And yet…my heart was racing slightly and the flesh under where he had put his hand on my arm was tingling.

"Fleur has been nothing but cruel to you. I have been nothing but cruel to you. Lana has been nothing but cruel to you. And yet…" he leaned in very close so his lips were about a quarter inch from mine. I stood, eyes wide, neither leaning in or pulling back. He pulled back and smirked, "you never seem to learn."

I sat down hard on the cot set up in the room and cursed myself. Why hadn't I kneed him in the crotch of slapped him like I should have? The answer was of course that I still harbored feelings for him but why was that? He was right; he had been nothing but cruel to me. And then there was Viktor, who was always so sweet and perfect, and who I really, really liked but somehow never made me feel quite like Roger.

"What the hell am I doing?" I mumbled to myself.

"Tennessee?" It was Viktor, standing in the door the compartment. "Where have you been?"

I smiled. "Oh, just trying to get myself together." I said, which was only about three fourths of a lie.

He came and sat next to me on the cot. "I do not like that Davis boy." He said.

"He is a bit of an ass." I said lightly.

"Do I need to worry about him?" Viktor asked.

I tried to look confused. "No. I don't think so."

Viktor stared at me for a second, looking me right in the eyes. I fought to hold his gaze. "Okay then." He said. Then, "You should drink."

The pepper up potion was still smoking on the nightstand. I took a few sips and felt warmth return to my extremities. We sat there for a while. I had my back against this chest and he had his arm around my waist, like he had in the lake. We didn't talk and the crowd outside was silent. I thought about Ron and little Gabrielle and shivered a little bit.

Then there was a knock on the door and before we could respond in burst Fred, George, Amanda and Jack. "Tennessee that was brilliant!" Fred exclaimed.

"I thought you were dead mate!" George shouted, walloping me on the shoulder. "When you came up from the lake floating all weirdly."

"It was so romantic!" Amanda sighed.

"Glad you're all right Tennessee!"

They were talking all at once, a babble of disjointed sounds that I didn't even bother trying to decipher: their faces told me all I needed to know. Though they were all excited I could still see the pale whiteness from the terror under their flushes. I knew they had all been worried about me and I wanted to hug them all for it. "You were awesome!" Fred repeated.

I laughed. "I didn't do anything actually…" I started to say but they weren't even listening to me anymore—the crowd outside had erupted into screams of joy. We all rushed outside.

"Where's Ron?" George was shouting because for a second none of us could spot them in the lake.

"He's there!" I said, pointing to the middle of the lake where a group of three were treading water. "And he's got Gabrielle with him!"

Down the bank Fleur had shed her modicum of calm was fighting as hard as she could to return to the water but Madame Maxime was holding her back. The two boys pulled the girl to the bank where the three of them were hoisted up into the air and swaddled in blankets. Fred and George broke off from us and went to go make sure that they weren't going to have to write their mum explaining that it wasn't their fault their little brother's toes had fallen off from frostbite. I breathed out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding. Another task was over and no one was hurt.

Suddenly, I felt all grown up, old even. I felt so very tired and somber standing on the banks I sagged against Viktor. What were all these adults around us thinking? We were too young for this, much too young. "I'm glad you are all right." I whispered to him.

He looked surprised but just kissed me and let me lean against him as we watched the judges give the marks.

_The end _

AN: Well it has been a while kids and I apologize for that. Anyway please, please, please tell me what you think of this chapter. Tell me about anything you love or hate. All input is listened too. Seriously, you would be so surprised how far a little constructive criticism goes.


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